Alcohols as carbon radical precursors

Carbon radicals are attractive intermediates for organic synthesis because of their diversity and high reactivities. In this research, we realized radical C-C bond formation reactions using alcohols as straightforward carbon radical precursors. We used a newly developed low-valent titanium reagent to cleave the C-O bonds of benzyl alcohol derivatives to generate the corresponding carbon radicals. This method was successfully applied to radical coupling reactions with several electron-deficient alkenes.

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