Visible‐Light Photoredox Alkylation of Heteroaromatic Bases Using Ethyl Acetate as Alkylating Agent

An efficient room-temperature visible-light photoredox alpha-acyloxyalkylation reaction ofN-heteroarenes is reported, which relies on the use of ethyl acetate as a cheap and non-conventional radical source. The direct C(sp(2))-C(sp(3)) coupling was extended to a diverse set of mono-, bi-, and tricyclic ofN-heteroaromatics, and the optimized photoredox protocol was successfully performed on a multigram scale. The scope of the alkylating agent was also explored and a plausible mechanism was proposed, involving photoinduced single-electron transfer and hydrogen-atom transfer processes.