Mayank Murthy, Shiv Chand, Saurabh Kumar, Abhinay Shukla, Krishna Nand Singh
A visible-light-driven metallaphotoredox strategy has been developed for the synthesis of β-cyanoketones using readily available 2-bromoacetophenones and aryl acetonitriles under dual eosin Y/Co(OAc)2·4H2O catalysis in the presence of DBU and blue LED irradiation. This operationally simple and mild protocol enables efficient C-C bond formation via a radical pathway, affording synthetically valuable β-cyanoketones in high yields with broad functional-group tolerance.