Photoinduced acyl transfer

The acylation reaction occupies a central role in biochemistry and organic synthesis. On the one hand, it is by this very reaction that amino acids successively assemble to form peptides and proteins, and on the other hand it is a major synthetic method encompassing esterification, amidation, Friedel–Crafts reaction andmanyother processes routinely used both at the laboratory and the industrial scale. Photochemical activation is always an attractive alternative, because it is relativelymild (provided innocuous wavelengths are used), and no additional substance is added; thus no separation of the activator is necessary at the end of the process. In this paper, we briefly survey the most widely used methods of photoinduced acylations, and our own contribution to the field.