Metal-free reductive cleavage of C-N and S-N bonds by photoactivated electron transfer from a neutral organic donor

A photoactivated neutral organic super electron donor cleaves challenging arenesulfonamides derived from dialkylamines at room temperature. It also cleaves a) ArCNR and b) ArNC bonds. This study also highlights the assistance given to these cleavage reactions by the groups attached to N in (a) and to C in (b), by lowering LUMO energies and by stabilizing the products of fragmentation.