Thiocyanate: a visible-light-driven traceless auxiliary for stereoselective cyclopropyl ketone construction.

An operationally simple method for the diastereoselective construction of cyclopropyl ketones from alkenes is described in this study. The pseudohalide -SCN is used as a traceless auxiliary to address the elimination problem posed by halide intermediates, leading to the successful incorporation of single-electron-withdrawing-group-substituted radical progenitors in the cyclopropanation manifold.