A Photochemical Dehydrogenative Strategy for Direct and Regioselective Dimerization of BODIPY Dyes

By taking advantage of their intense visible-light absorptions, a photoinduced, AgI promoted oxidative dimerization of BODIPY dyes was developed to give structurally unprecedented α,α- and α,γ-linked dimers. In contrast to classical oxidative aromatic coupling, this methodology does not need a strong oxidant and relies on the singlet electron transfer process between excited-state BODIPYs and an electron acceptor to generate BODIPY based radical species.