Free-Radical Deoxygenative Amination of Alcohols via Copper Metallaphotoredox Catalysis

Although alcohols are among the most abundant chemical feedstock, they remain vastly underutilized as coupling partners in transition metal catalysis. Herein, we describe a copper metallaphotoredox manifold for an open shell deoxygenative coupling of alcohols with N-nucleophiles forging C(sp3)–N bonds, a linkage highly sought in pharmaceutical agents but challenging to access via conventional cross-coupling techniques. N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-mediated conversion of alcohols into the corresponding alkyl radicals followed by copper-catalyzed C–N coupling renders this platform successful for a broad range of structurally unbiassed alcohols and 18 classes of N-nucleophiles.