Lanthanide Ions Coupled with Photoinduced Electron Transfer Generate Strong Reduction Potentials from Visible Light.

Metal ions can have beneficial effects on photoinduced electron transfer. Merging such metal-ion-coupled electron transfer (MCET) with consecutive photoinduced electron transfer (conPET) enables the one-electron reduction of chlorobenzene with blue light in the presence of diisopropylethylamine as an electron donor. The presence of the metal ions extends the substrate scope of the photoredox catalysis to extreme reduction potentials (beyond -3 V vs. SCE).