Initially, a model reaction of
N-methacryloyl-2-phenylbenzoimidazole (
1a) with phenyl diazonium salt (
2a) was chosen to optimize the reaction conditions. The results are summarized in
Table 1. When the model reaction was carried out in the presence of Ru(phen)
3Cl
2 (3mol%) under air in MeCN with the irradiation of blue light emitting diode (LED, 450–455nm, 3W) for 8h, the desired product
3a was obtained in 52% yield (
Table 1, entry 1). As the solvent was changed from MeCN to DMF, the yield of
3a was improved to 61% (entry 2). To our pleasure, an isolated yield of
3a in 66% was achieved when a DMSO was used as the solvent (entry 3). Other solvents such as EtOH and MeOH, were found to be less effective for this reaction (entries 4 and 5). The generally used photocatalysts including eosin Y, rose bengal and acridine red were found to be inferior to Ru(phen)
3Cl
2 for the reaction, providing
3a in 38%–51% yields (entries 6–9). Ru(bpy)
3Cl
2 exhibited a comparable activity with Ru(phen)
3Cl
2, generating
3a in 63% yield (entry 9). When fluorescien or [Acr
+-Mes]ClO
4 was employed as the photocatalyst instead of Ru(phen)
3Cl
2 in the model reaction, no desired product
3a was observed (entries 10 and 11). As expected, no reaction occurred in the absence of photocatalyst or visible light (entries 12 and 13). When the reaction was carried out under ambient light, the reaction was much more sluggish and had a dramatically decreased yield (entry 14). Under the irradiation of a LED with 450–455nm or 530–535nm, 43% or 58% yield of
3a was obtained (entries 15 and 16). In addition, the internal temperature of the reaction mixture was measured and found that it is 27±1 ℃.