Acceptorless Dehydrogenation of N-Heterocycles in a Photoelectrochemical Cell

This paper describes an acceptorless dehydrogenation process of N-heterocycles by a photoelectrochemical (PEC) method under simulated sunlight irradiation at room temperature. A series of N-heterocyclic compounds, including DHPMs, dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-ones, tetrahydroisoquinolines, and cyclic sulfonamides, were effectively dehydrogenated into the corresponding products (up to 97% yield) and accompanied by simultaneous hydrogen evolution in a PEC cell comprising a mesoporous BiVO4 photoanode and Pt electrode.