Photocatalytic C–C Bond Azidation and Cyanation of Acyclic Ketones via a Pro-aromatic Intermediate

Herein, we report a formal C–C bond azidation and cyanation of unactivated aliphatic ketones using commercially available tosyl azide and cyanide, respectively. A visible-light-mediated organophotocatalyst enables radical azidation and cyanation of ketone-derived pro-aromatic dihydroquinazolinones (under mostly redox-neutral conditions) as supported by preliminary mechanistic studies. These metal-free and scalable protocols can be used to synthesize tertiary, secondary, and primary alkyl azides and nitriles with good functional group tolerance and postsynthetic diversification of the azide group, including bioconjugation.