Organosilicon compounds play important roles in the fields of material science and pharmaceutical chemistry. The transformations involving organosilicon reagents have therefore attract extensive interest from synthetic community. The burgeoning visible light photocatalysis has provided a new opportunity for organic synthesis. Under the photoredox system, organosilicon compounds could be transformed into silicon or carbon radicals to participate in a variety of reactions. Generally, these reactions bear the merits, such as mild conditions, good selectivity, as well as high atom economy. According to the types of reactions, the recent progress in visible-light mediated hydrosilylation and difunctionalization of alkenes and alkynes, C—H bond silylation of N-aromatic heterocycles using organosilicon compounds as silicon radical precursors, and nucleophilic addition, Minisci reaction, homolytic substitution, as well as transition metal mediated cross-coupling reactions using organosilicon compounds as carbon radical precursors is reviewed primarily herein.

Key words: organosilicon compounds, visible light photocatalysis, hydrogen atom transfer (HAT), single electron transfer (SET), silyl radical, carbon radicals