Recent developments for the photoinduced Ar–X bond dissociation reaction

Recent developments in the photochemical carbon–carbon and carbon–heteroatom bond formation via photoinduced Ar–X bond dissociation are summarized. The transformations through the Ar–X bond dissociation enabled by photoenergy include nucleophilic substitution, arylation, alkylation, aminocarbonylation, aminosulfonylation and decarboxylative coupling reactions. Usually, the reactions undergo one-electron-transfer couplings and aryl radicals or cations are involved as the key intermediates. Under ultraviolet irradiation or visible light, the reactions of aryl halides with reactive partners proceed smoothly under mild conditions. In some cases, the transformations can proceed without any metals or photo-redox catalysts. Moreover, the broad reaction scope is demonstrated with good functional group tolerance.