N-Acryloyl amino acid esters and peptides as radical acceptors in photoinduced decarboxylative radical reaction

•N-Acryloyl amino acid esters and peptides can be utilized as radical acceptors in the PET induced decarboxylation reaction.•The photoreaction afforded modified amino acids and peptides under mild reaction conditions.•This methodology can provide decarboxylated coupling peptides containing γ-amino acids.

The photoinduced electron transfer (PET) promoted decarboxylative radical additions of carboxylic acids using N-acryloyl amino acid esters and peptides as radical acceptors smoothly afforded the corresponding modified amino acids and peptides under mild reaction conditions. The radical additions of α-amino acids led to the formation of γ- and α-dipeptide, and peptides underwent peptide coupling via decarboxylation.

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