In our second collaborative publication with the Paton group as part of SuPRCat, Katie led a terrific team (Rodrigo, Mihai, Grace, and Sam) to show that base-metal complexes of carboxylic acids can engage in direct C–H lactonizations reactions upon LMCT photoactivation. The surprising mechanistic insight from these experiments is that the reaction does not involve a free carboxy radical: we hypothesize that stabilization of the radical by coordination to metal partitions the reaction towards HAT and away from unproductive decarboxylation. Now online at ACIE.
