Nucleophilic character of alkyl radicals—VI

A new method of homolytic alkylation of heteroaromatic bases is described, in which the silver-catalysed oxidative decarboxylation of acids by peroxydisulphate is used as a source of alkyl radicals. The method is particularly noteworthy because of the good yields and the high selectivity obtained, due to the nucleophilic character of the alkyl radicals; for synthetic interest it is comparable to electrophilic alkylation in the homocyclic series.