Direct Solar Energy-Mediated Synthesis of Tertiary Benzylic Alcohols Using a Metal-Free Heterogeneous Photocatalyst

Direct hydroxylation via the functionalization of tertiary benzylic C(sp3)–H bonds is great significance for obtaining alcohols, which find wide applications in pharmaceuticals as well fine chemical industries. However, current synthetic procedures use toxic reagents, and therefore, development a sustainable strategy synthesis alcohols highly desirable. To solve this problem, herein, we report metal-free heterogeneous photocatalyst to synthesize hydroxylated products using oxygen key reagent. Various substrates were employed into our mild reaction conditions afford desirable good excellent yields. More importantly, gram-scale was achieved harvesting direct solar energy exhibited high quantity product. The stability catalyst proved recycling spectroscopic analyses. Finally, possible mechanism proposed based on electron paramagnetic resonance other experimental evidence.