Acridinium Salts and Cyanoarenes as Powerful Photocatalysts: New Opportunities in Organic Synthesis.

The use of organic photocatalysts has revolutionized the field of photoredox catalysis as it allowed access to new reactivities that were traditionally restricted to transition metal photocatalysts. In this review we focus our attention onto two classes of organophotocatalysts, namely acridinium ions and cyanoarenes derivatives that have demonstrated remarkable activities in large variety of organic transformations. Specifically, the use of those photocatalysts in oxidative quenching processes will be discussed with a special focus on their mechanistic aspects.