Photoredox Chemistry on Carbohydrates; Decarboxylative alkylation and Hydrogen Atom Transfer Reactions

Carbohydrates are an important class of compounds, as raw materials for industry, in food and feed, but also in biology. They are non-toxic, available on large scale in a pure form, and thus represent interesting bio-based starting materials for the development of new photo-redox and electrochemical reactions. The selective conversion of carbohydrates is challenging, and will be addressed with photo-redox catalysis and electro synthesis, as these approaches are extremely useful for the development of new, direct and functional group compatible bond functionalization methods. Addressing selectivity issues is a major challenge in such C-H functionalization reactions where similar C-H bonds are present. Careful determination of the site- selectivity of a specific electrochemical reaction in a series of different substrates, will give insight in the mechanism of these electrochemical transformations, which will provide an in-depth understanding of the factors governing the site- selectivity in carbohydrates and thus providing guidelines for tuning of this selectivity.

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