Hydrofunctionalization of olefins to value-added chemicals via photocatalytic coupling

A green strategy was developed for the synthesis of various value-added chemicals using methanol, acetonitrile, acetic acid, acetone and ethyl acetate as the hydrogen source by coupling them with olefins over heterogeneous photocatalysts. A radical coupling mechanism was proposed for the hydrofunctionalization of olefins with methanol to higher aliphatic alcohols over the Pt/TiO2 catalyst as the model reaction. C-H bond cleavage and C-C bond formation between photogenerated radicals and terminal olefins were accomplished in a single reaction at high efficiency. Our approach is atomically economical with high anti-Markovnikov regioselectivity and promising application potential under mild reaction conditions.