Photoinduced Radical‐Mediated Strategies for the Synthesis of Pyridine Derivatives

Pyridine is one of the most prevalent structural cores in pharmaceuticals. Photoinduced methods provide a mild, efficient, and ecofriendly approach for the selective functionalization of pyridines. Herein, we summarize the research work on photoinduced pyridine functionalization over the past few years. The major advances in this field are systematically classified based on the differences in starting reactants. This account will review, within the research of each section, the functional group tolerance and substrate scope of functionalizing reagents and pyridine substrates, as well as the different mechanisms caused by the differences in each reactant. It will also analyze the key influencing factors of each photoinduced pathway on the pyridine functionalization sites and provide insights for the development of new methods for photoinduced radical‐mediated highly regioselective functionalization of pyridines.