Phys.org October 7, 2024
The identity of a heteroatom within an aromatic ring influences the chemical properties of that heterocyclic compound. Chemists have recently introduced a flurry of editing methods to excise individual atoms from molecular frameworks and, in some cases, replace them with alternate functionality. However, systematically evaluating the effect of a single atom poses synthetic challenges, primarily because of thermodynamic mismatches in atomic exchange processes. Researchers in the Republic of Korea developed a photocatalytic strategy that swaps an oxygen atom of furan with a nitrogen group, directly converting the furan into a pyrrole analog in a single intermolecular reaction. They observed compatibility with various furan derivatives and nitrogen nucleophiles commonly used in drug discovery. Mechanistic analysis suggested that polarity inversion through single electron transfer initiates the redox-neutral atom exchange processes at room temperature… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE