Organic synthesis plays a pivotal role in many fields of our daily lives (pharmaceutics, agrosciences, materials, energy and others). Consequently, the constant development and evolution of this highly dynamic but underloved discipline is essential to build more sustainable societies and reduce our environmental impact.  In this context, the design of new catalytic systems able to convert efficiently abundant feedstocks in valuable molecules trough new reaction pathways and with reduced energy inputs is highly appealing.

Free radicals are well known reactive intermediates able to participate in transformations remaining elusive for traditional closed-shell molecules. However, the use of such high-energy moieties as molecular catalysts has long been neglected due to their instability and uncontrollable reactivity. Recently, the advent of visible-light photocatalysis has opened new opportunities to address a part of these challenges.   

This presentation will cover the challenges and perspectives of using free-radicals as catalysts in organic synthesis and describe some recent contributions from our lab in merging photocatalysis an organocatalysis to design original and reliable radical organocatalytic systems.