Direct Deoxyboration of Alkyl Alcohols

This study describes the direct activation of typical alkyl alcohols by neutral boron radicals, followed by a realistic boronization reaction scheme. The reaction in question necessitates an effective reagent that can swiftly activate the alcohol hydroxyl group to produce radicals. This is essential for preventing coordination of the alcohol hydroxyl group to the boron reagent. This study presents an efficient photocatalytic method for generating boron radicals from cost-effective and readily accessible sodium tetraphenylboron. This mechanism facilitates activation of the alcohol hydroxyl group for dehydroxylation and boronization. Dehydroxylation does not require prior activation of the alcohol, improves the reaction efficiency, and yields excellent results for most alcohol substrates.