Photoinduced Dehydrogenative Amination of Quinoxalin-2(1)-ones with Air as an Oxidant.

A facile and eco-friendly photoinduced dehydrogenative amination of quinoxalin-2(1)-ones with aliphatic amines without any metal, strong oxidant, and photocatalyst has been established for the first time. This reaction proceeding efficiently with air as the sole oxidant at room temperature obtains a wide range of 3-aminoquinoxaline-2(1)-ones in high yields with excellent functional group tolerance. The mechanistic studies show an interesting involvement of quinoxalin-2(1)-ones as a photosensitizer, which eliminates the requirement for external photocatalysts.