Recently, a significant research breakthrough was made by the research team led by Jingjing Wu at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Their work which is entitled "Development of N-Centered Radical Scavengers that Enables Photoredox-Catalyzed Transition-Metal-Free Radical Amination of Alkyl Pinacol Boronates" has been officially published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.

Article abstract:

In recent years, amination of alkylboronates through ionic copper catalysis or boron-ate complex 1,2-metalation has been well established, but complementary radical processes remain less studied before. Herein, based on rational design, we develop several imine-type N-centered radical scavengers and apply them to the radical amination of alkylboronates. The reaction proceeds under mild photoredox-catalyzed transition-metal-free conditions and features excellent functional group tolerance. It also enables the preparation of a range of medicinally valuable amine derivatives from complex natural products. Further application of this reagent in C-H amination, deoxygenative amination, decarboxylative amination and three component trifluoromethylative/sulfonylative aminations are also realized. Further mechanistic studies and DFT calculations are conducted to provide detailed evidence for the mechanism.