The Schindler and Kulik labs report that matching of the frontier molecular orbital energies of alkenes with those of acyclic oximes enables visible light–mediated aza Paternò–Büchi reactions through triplet energy transfer catalysis. The reaction used to create azetidines is driven by a photocatalyst that excites the molecules from their ground energy state. Using computational models developed by the Kulik lab, we were able to predict compounds that can react with each other to form azetidines using this kind of catalysis.
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