Temporal Coincidence in a Carbodiimide Driven Acid-Anhydride Equilibrium Coupled to a Photocatalytic Decarboxylation Reaction

Nature uses temporal coincidence to ensure biological processes only occur when multiple signals arrive within a narrow time window. The timing-dependent requirement is crucial as it filters noise and enables precise control over complex functions, yet has not found an equivalent in synthetic reaction networks. Herein, we show that carbodiimide fueled equilibria between acid and anhydride can be coupled to photochemical decarboxylation to obtain temporal coincidence. Under optimized conditions, the decarboxylation of the anhydride is much faster than the acid. However, the anhydride hydrolyzes back to the acid, and as such is only temporally present after carbodiimide addition, which restricts its conversion to exclusively this time period. The network therefore displays temporal coincidence, as the product is only generated when both carbodiimide and light inputs align in time. Such systems provide a platform to explore the role of temporal gating in biological regulation and offer new strategies for adaptive catalysis