An overview on disulfide-catalyzed and -cocatalyzed photoreactions

Disulfides are versatile catalysts. They can be photocatalysts, hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) catalysts, cocatalysts, or initiators in photocatalytic reactions. Under photoirradiation, organic disulfides can be easily cleaved into free thiyl radicals (RS(•)) and can reversibly add to unsaturated multiple bonds to catalyze a variety of functionalization reactions under mild conditions. In photoredox catalysis reactions, an excellent electron transfer ability and excellent radical properties also made these thiyl radicals powerful HAT catalysts. They have increasingly been proven useful in various types of organic photoreactions, such as cyclizations, anti-Markovnikov additions, aromatic olefin carbonylations, isomerizations, etc. They are a class of green, economic, mild, and chemoselective radical catalysts that deserve more attention. The present review highlights the recent progress in the field of disulfide-catalyzed and -cocatalyzed photocatalytic reactions for different reaction types.