A novel photoinduced reduction system of low-valent samarium species: reduction of organic halides and chalcogenides, and its application to carbonylation with carbon monoxide
irradiation is found to enhance the reducing ability of samariumdiiodide (SmI2) dramatically. Organic halides (RCl, RBr, RI) and chalcogenides (RSPh, RSePh, RTePh) are smoothly reduced to the corresponding hydrocarbons by using this SmI2–hv system. The photoactivation can be also applied to ytterbium diiodide (YbI2) successfully. When the reduction of alkyl chlorides (RCl) by using the SmI2–hv system is conducted