Highly Performing Iodoperfluoroalkylation of Alkenes Triggered by the Photochemical Activity of Perylene Diimides

We describe a novel efficient photochemical procedure for the direct iodoperfluoroalkylation of terminal olefins. The process uses a simple and inexpensive perylenediimide (PDI) in an extremely low catalytic loading and occurs with visible light irradiation. The reported methodology is highly viable from a synthetic point of view, since it proceeds under mild reaction conditions with a significant rate of production. Preliminary mechanistic investigations are also reported.