Harnessing the synergistic power of light and electricity: An emerging frontier in catalytic heterocycle synthesis

The strategic integration of photochemistry and electrochemistry in organic synthesis has opened new avenues for catalytic heterocycle synthesis. This Highlight provides a comprehensive overview of photoelectrocatalytic heterocycle forming strategies, discussing the mechanistic aspects and offering insights into the future prospects of this emerging field. Based on the distinct mechanistic pathways, the transformations herein have been preliminarily classified into four categories: (1) photoexcitation of electrochemically generated radical ion catalysts, (2) electrochemically mediated photoredox catalysis, (3) electrochemically mediated photoinduced ligand-to-metal charge transfer catalysis, (4) interfacial photoelectrocatalysis and others.