Photochemical oxygenation of cyclohexene with water sensitized by aluminium(III) porphyrins with visible light

•Al(III) porphyrin induces the photochemical oxygenation of cyclohexene with water.•Water serves as both electron and oxygen atom donor.•The Al(III) utilized is the Earth’s the third most abundant element.

Aluminium(III)-tetramesitylporphyrin, with the Earth’s the most abundant metal and the third most abundant element as the Al(III) ion, induces the photochemical oxygenation of cyclohexene in deaerated aqueous acetonitrile to form the corresponding epoxide and alcohol with water as both electron and oxygen atom donor upon visible light irradiation. The Al(III) should be the most available and meaningful element to be utilized in the artificial photosynthetic unit. The excited triplet state of the water-coordinated porphyrin is responsible for the photochemical oxygenation.

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