Photochemistry

A further field of study involves the application of energy-transfer catalysis to the synthesis of natural products and the exploration of novel reactivity. Employing visible light to access triplet states allows for mild photochemical conversions: For the synthesis of delavatine A a method to construct a hetereocyclic acenaphthene moiety was required. A visible-light-enabled photochemical cyclization of acrylates to acenaphthenes provided the key to synthesizing the natural product.