Photocatalytic aerobic -oxygenation of amides to imides using a highly durable decatungstate tetraphenylphosphonium salt

Decatungstate is a potent photocatalyst for hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) but faces degradation issues when using a typical tetra-n-butylammonium salt. Herein, we employed tetraphenylphosphonium as a countercation to yield a highly durable and efficient HAT photocatalyst, enabling alpha-oxygenation of amides to their corresponding imides using O2 as an oxidant. We report a highly durable and efficient decatungstate tetraphenylphosphonium salt as a hydrogen atom transfer photocatalyst, enabling the photocatalytic alpha-oxygenation of various amides to their corresponding imides using O2 as an oxidant.