Metal-Free Dehydrogenation of N-Heterocycles by Ternary h-BCN Nanosheets with Visible Light.

An efficient metal-free catalytic system has been developed based on hexagonal boron carbon nitride (h-BCN) nanosheets for the dehydrogenation of N-heterocycles with visible light; hydrogen gas is released in the process, and thus no proton acceptor is needed. This acceptorless dehydrogenation of hydroquinolines, hydroisoquinolines, and indolines to the corresponding aromatic N-heterocycles occurred in excellent yield under visible-light irradiation at ambient temperature. With h-BCN as the photocatalyst and water as the solvent, this environmentally benign protocol shows broad substitution tolerance and high efficiency.