Visible-Light-Induced Dual Iron/Eosin Y Catalysis for Direct Dehydrogenation of Saturated Heterocycles, Alcohols, Esters and Amides

The development of unified and direct dehydrogenation strategies for ubiquitous saturated feedstocks, including heterocycles, alcohols, esters, and amides, holds significant value. Herein, we report a visible-light-induced direct dehydrogenation of six classes of substrates enabled by an iron catalyst. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest that photoexcitation of Eosin Y initiates single-electron transfer to the iron catalyst, followed by hydrogen atom transfer and subsequent dehydrogenation. This method provides a practical platform for the construction of diverse molecular libraries.