Alkene Carboarylation through Catalyst-Free, Visible Light-Mediated Smiles Rearrangement.

A light-mediated Truce-Smiles arylative rearrangement is described that proceeds in the absence of any photocatalyst. The protocol creates two C-C bonds from simple starting materials, with the installation of an aryl ring and a difluoroacetate moiety across unactivated alkenes. The reaction proceeds via a radical mechanism, utilizing a light-mediated reduction of ethyl bromodifluoroacetate by N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) to set up intermolecular addition to an unactivated alkene, followed by Truce-Smiles rearrangement.