Novel Oxidative Ugi Reaction for the Synthesis of Highly Active, Visible-Light, Imide-Acridinium Organophotocatalysts.

A newly designed class of acridinium-based organophotocatalysts bearing an imide group at the C9-position is presented. To achieve these unprecedented structures, a synthetic strategy based on a novel straightforward oxidative Ugi-type reaction at the benzylic position of C9-unsubstituted acridanes was developed. The introduction of the imide-unit affords a notable photocatalytic activity enhancement, allowing efficient transformations in different oxidative and reductive visible-light catalytic reactions.