CALM TALK 196 | Photoinduced reactions of carbonyls through radical-anion intermediates

Ketyl radicals are valuable intermediates that allow carbonyl chemistry to be extended beyond traditional electrophilic reactivity. However, accessing ketyl radicals by single-electron reduction of carbonyls requires strongly reducing conditions. This talk will focus on our development of an alternative strategy to access ketyl radicals from aldehydes that avoids the reduction pathway, instead proceeding via single-electron oxidation and desulfination of in situ-generated α-hydroxy sulfinates. Furthermore, our recent discovery of simple photochemical conditions for carbonyl–olefin couplings via alkene radical anion intermediates will be discussed. Adam studied chemistry at the University of Nottingham (MSci, 2004-2008) before completing his PhD with Prof. Jim Anderson at University College London (2008-2012). This was followed by postdoctoral positions with Prof. Dave MacMillan at Princeton University (2012-2014) and Prof. Varinder Aggarwal at the University of Bristol (2014-2017). He then worked as the Research Officer in the Aggarwal group before beginning his independent research at the University of Bristol in 2022, where he is currently a Lecturer in the School of Chemistry. His research interests focus on methodology development using visible light photochemistry. He has published over 60 papers in top journals such as Nature, Nat. Syn., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., etc.