Irradiation of hydrazines with visible-light in the presence of organic dye eosin B generates various types of functional radicals, which are trapped by 2-isocyanobiphenyls to give 6-substituted phenanthridines.
An I2-mediated synthesis of phenanthridines via intramolecular sp3 C-H amination of readily accessible aniline precursors is reported. The present synthetic process is straightforward and applicable to a broad variety of unprotected aniline substrates, and provides facile and efficient access to phenanthridine derivatives. This C-H amination protocol does not use transition metals, is operationally