Recent Development of Photoinduced Iron-Catalysis in Organic Synthesis

In recent years, the development and application of transition metal ruthenium or iridium complexes based photocatalysts have opened up a new research field for organic synthesis, which provides mild and efficient strategies for the construction of chemical bonds and organic transformations. In order to enrich the types of photocatalysts, broaden the application scope of photocatalysis, and develop green and sustainable chemistry, some low-cost and easily available organometallic complexes with copper or iron were applied as photocatalysts recently. Iron-complexes feature non-toxicity, rich variety, and unique property of charge transfer from ligands to metals, which enable them show extraordinary capability in the field of photocatalytic synthesis. According to different reaction types, this review focuses on the recent development of photoinduced iron-catalysis in organic synthesis including C-H bond functionalization, C-C bond functionalization, bifunctionalization of alkenes, cross-coupling reaction, decarboxylative functionalization, selective oxidation and reduction.