Emerging Organic Photoredox Catalysts for Organic Transformations

A lot of efforts have been made for the development of novel organic photoredox catalysts (PCs) due to their gratifying replacement for conventional transition metal‐based PCs in photoredox catalysis. In this minireview, we summarized and classified the recently reported organic PCs into several categories based on functional groups (e.g. cyanoarene, phenazine, xanthene, and others) with their applications to various organic transformations including polymerization reactions. The strategies used to design organic PCs then also introduced. The emerging trends for the discovery of organic PCs are systematic approaches which include computer‐aided and mechanism‐based design. We anticipate that this minireview will provide not only the characteristics of the recently reported organic PCs, but also an insight into the design and discovery of organic PCs for desired applications. The recent emergence of organic photoredox catalysts has been aided by the establishment of design strategies (e.g. structure–property/performance relationship, strongly twisted donor–acceptor scaffolds or computer‐guided approaches). In this minireview, we summarize organic photoredox catalysts that have been reported since 2016, with their design, properties, and applications in organic syntheses.