Pyridazine N -Oxides as Photoactivatable Surrogates for Reactive Oxygen Species

A method for the photoinduced evolution of atomic oxygen from pyridazine -oxides was developed. This underexplored oxygen allotrope mediates arene C-H oxidation within complex, polyfunctional molecules. A water-soluble pyridazine -oxide was also developed and shown to promote photoinduced DNA cleavage in aqueous solution. Taken together, these studies highlight the utility of pyridazine -oxides as photoactivatable O( P) precursors for applications in organic synthesis and chemical biology.