Anti-Markovnikov alkene hydroalkylation via iron photocatalysis
Shih-Chieh Kao, Kang-Jie Bian, Jess C. Tang, Shijin Yu, Yongchen Wang, Ying Chen, Xiaowei Chen, Julian G. West · 2026
Read Anti-Markovnikov alkene hydroalkylation via iron photocatalysis by Shih-Chieh Kao, Kang-Jie Bian, Jess C. Tang, Shijin Yu, Yongchen Wang, Ying Chen, Xiaowei Chen, Julian G. West (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13597299.txt.
Description
Shih-Chieh Kao and seven co-authors attach simple carbon groups to alkenes backwards, on purpose, with iron and light. Hydroalkylation builds carbon chains straight from cheap alkenes, but steering the new bond to the linear, anti-Markovnikov spot is hard, above all for methyl and ethyl pieces. Their trick is radical polarity reversal with a throwaway electron-withdrawing group: it guides the radical in, then deletes itself in the pot.
An iron and thiol pair under visible light runs the cycle. Methyl, ethyl, and cyclobutyl additions all landed with high linear selectivity from plain malonic acids. Fluorinated variants and a hormone drug target rounded out the reach.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Shih-Chieh Kao, Kang-Jie Bian, Jess C. Tang, Shijin Yu, Yongchen Wang, Ying Chen, Xiaowei Chen, Julian G. West |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 53 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |