Acridinium-Based Photocatalysts: A Sustainable Option in Photoredox Catalysis

• Amruta Joshi-Pangu^†
• François Lévesque^†
• Hudson G. Roth^‡
• Steven F. Oliver^†
• Louis-Charles Campeau^†
• David Nicewicz^‡
• Daniel A. DiRocco^†

• ^† Process Research & Development, Merck Research Laboratories, P.O. Box 2000, Rahway, New Jersey 07065, United States
• ^‡ Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3290, United States

The emergence of visible light photoredox catalysis has enabled the productive use of lower energy radiation, leading to highly selective reaction platforms. Polypyridyl complexes of iridium and ruthenium have served as popular photocatalysts in recent years due to their long excited state lifetimes and useful redox windows, leading to the development of diverse photoredox-catalyzed transformations. The low abundances of Ir and Ru in the earth’s crust and, hence, cost make these catalysts nonsustainable and have limited their application in industrial-scale manufacturing. Herein, we report a series of novel acridinium salts as alternatives to iridium photoredox catalysts and show their comparability to the ubiquitous [Ir(dF-CF3-ppy)2(dtbpy)](PF6).

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