The reductive ring opening of epoxides is a powerful transformation to convert readily accessible epoxides into a diverse array of valuable alcohols, including pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and functional polymers. Although significant progress has been made, the established methods were limited to titanocene-catalyzed reactions. Herein, we report an unprecedented zirconocene-catalyzed ring opening of epoxide enabled by photoredox catalysis. Compared with the conventional ring-opening methods, the present protocol exhibited reverse regioselectivity to afford more substituted alcohols via putative less-stable radicals. This reaction is remarkably mild and smoothly cleaves C–O bonds in molecules with a variety of functional groups, including natural products. We believe that the finding that changing the metal center in metallocene influences the energy profile of ring opening is a significant advance and provides a new perspective in radical chemistry with group IV metals.

环氧化物的还原性开环是一种强大的转化，可将容易获得的环氧化物转化为各种有价值的醇，包括药物、农用化学品和功能性聚合物。尽管已经取得了重大进展，但已建立的方法仅限于二茂钛催化反应。在此，我们报告了一种前所未有的由光氧化还原催化实现的由锆茂催化的环氧化物开环。与传统的开环方法相比，本方案表现出反向区域选择性，可通过假定的不太稳定的自由基提供更多的取代醇。该反应非常温和，可以顺利切割具有多种官能团的分子中的 C-O 键，包括天然产物。