Sustainable Organic Photocatalysis for Site-Selective Hydrazocoupling of Electron-Rich Arenes.

An efficient photocatalytic para - and ortho- selective amination and aminative dearomatization of phenols, naphthols, and anilines with azodicarboxylates was developed using riboflavin tetraacetate (RFTA) as an organic photocatalyst. The site selectivity was controlled using tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB), which also acts as a phase transfer catalyst. The reaction conditions are simple and mild, giving high regioselectivity with good to excellent yields. A broad substrate scope and nice functional group tolerance with scalability and post-functionalization make this protocol both useful and regioselective.