Catalytic one-carbon homologation of alpha-amino acids to beta-amino aldehydes

The development of a catalytic strategy for one-carbon homologation is of foundational importance in organic synthesis enabling quick elaboration of useful molecules. Herein, we report a dual nickel/photoredox catalytic strategy for transforming a range of a-amino acids into b-amino aldehydes in a simple one-step operation. This method provides a new catalytic blueprint for one- carbon homologation of alpha- amino acids without requiring any pre-functionalization step and could be strategically important for streamlining the preparation of value-added beta-amino aldehydes, versatile building blocks applied in a variety of synthetic transformations. More broadly, mechanistic studies demonstrated here show how a radical generated in situ can be captured for rapid access of aldehydes, which would promote the applications of numerous othermolecules for valuable aldehyde synthesis.