Visible light photooxidation of nitrate: the dawn of a nocturnal radical

Abstract

Highly oxidizing nitrate radicals (NO3°) are easily accessed from readily available nitrate salts by visible light photoredox catalysis using a purely organic dye as the catalyst and oxygen as the terminal oxidant. The interaction of the excited catalyst and nitrate anions was studied by spectroscopic methods to elucidate the mechanism, and the method was applied to the NO3° induced oxidation of alkynes and alcohols.