Building Congested Ketone: Substituted Hantzsch Ester and Nitrile as Alkylation Reagents in Photoredox Catalysis.

For the first time, 4-alkyl Hantzsch esters were used to construct molecules with all-carbon quaternary centers by visible light-induced photoredox catalysis via transfer alkylation. Up to a 1500 h(-1) turnover frequency was achieved in this reaction. Reactions of 4-alkyl Hantzsch nitriles as tertiary radical donors joined two contiguous all-carbon quaternary centers intermolecularly, and this chemistry was used to synthesize a common precursor of a class of hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase inhibitors.