Organocatalytic Approach to Photochemical Lignin Fragmentation.

Herein, an organocatalytic method for photochemical C-O bond cleavage of lignin systems is reported. The use of photochemistry enabled fragmentation of the β-O-4 linkage, the primary linkage in lignin, provides the fragmentation products in good to high yields. The approach was merged with reported oxidation conditions in a one-pot, two-step platform without any intermediary purification, suggesting its high fidelity. The future utility of the organocatalytic method was illustrated by applying the visible light-mediated protocol to continuous flow processing.