Light-Driven Reduction of Aromatic Olefins in Aqueous Media Catalysed by Aminopyridine Cobalt Complexes

A catalytic system based on earth-abundant elements that efficiently hydrogenates aryl olefins using visible light as driving-force and H2O as the sole hydrogen atoms source is reported. The catalytic system involves a robust and well-defined aminopyridine cobalt complex and a heteroleptic Cu photoredox catalyst. The system shows the reduction of styrene in aqueous media with a remarkable selectivity (> 20000) versus water reduction (WR). Reactivity and mechanistic studies support the formation of a [Co-H] intermediate, which reacts as a hydrogen transfer agent (HAT). Synthetically useful deuterium-labelled compounds can be straightforwardly obtained by replacing H2O with D2O and using only catalysts based on earth-abundant elements. Moreover, the dual photocatalytic system and the photocatalytic conditions can be rationally designed to tune the selectivity for aryl olefin vs aryl ketone reduction; not only by changing the structural and electronic properties of the cobalt catalysts, but also by modifying the reduction properties of the light-harvesting system