A visible-light-mediated synthesis of carbazoles.

Carbazole, discovered over 100 years ago, is a privileged heterocyclic motif whose electronic and structural features have allowed its derivatives to find numerous applications. In addition to its abundance in natural products and bioactive molecules, carbazole has been a key motif in the development of organic light-emitting materials because of its wide band gap, high luminescent efficiency, and flexibility to modify its parent skeleton. It has been found to be particularly useful in the preparation of highly efficient light-emitting and charge-transporting/host materials. Recently, catalytic transition-metal-based syntheses of carbazoles, involving oxidative pathways through N activation, have become increasingly attractive (Figure 1). These