Renewable Electricity Enables Green Routes to Fine Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals

Electrochemical C-H/C-C Bond Oxygenation: A Potential Technology for Plastic Depolymerization

Herein, we provide eco-friendly and safely operated electrocatalytic methods for the selective oxidation directly or with water, air, light, metal catalyst or other mediators serving as the only oxygen supply. Heavy metals, stoichiometric chemical oxidants, or harsh conditions were drawbacks of earlier oxidative cleavage techniques. It has recently come to light that a crucial stage in the deconstruction of plastic waste and the utilization of biomass is the selective activation of inert C(sp3 )-C/H(sp3 ) bonds, which continues to be a significant obstacle in the chemical upcycling of resistant polyolefin waste. An appealing alternative to chemical oxidations using oxygen and catalysts is direct or indirect electrochemical conversion. An essential transition in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries is the electrochemical oxidation of C-H/C-C bonds. In this review, we discuss cutting-edge approaches to chemically recycle commercial plastics and feasible C-C/C-H bonds oxygenation routes for industrial scale-up.

Synthesis of α-Chloroarylacetic Acid via Electrochemical Carboxylation of α,α-Dichloroarylmethane Derivatives

The electrocarboxylation of α,α-dichloroarylmethane derivatives in the presence of CO2 was achieved, providing several α-chloroarylacetic acid derivatives with modest yields but high selectivity (chlorinated vs. non-chlorinated or dicarboxylic acid products). The obtained products were then involved in several chemical transformations, underlining their potential as versatile intermediates in synthetic chemistry. A mechanism was also proposed based upon a control experiment and cyclic voltammetry (CV) study.

Electrochemical or Photoelectrochemical Alkenylpolyfluoroalkylation of 3-Aza-1,5-dienes: Regioselective Entry to Polyfluoroalkylated 4-Pyrrolin-2-ones

An electrochemical or photoelectrochemical regioselective polyfluoroalkylation/cyclization cascade of 3-aza-1,5-dienes with sodium fluoroalkanesulfinates is presented. This protocol proceeds with a broad substrate scope and good functional group tolerance under mild, oxidant-free, transition-metal-free, and electrolyte-free conditions to provide 3-polyfluoroalkylated 4-pyrrolin-2-ones in one step from readily available N-vinylacrylamides, and it is readily scalable to the Gram scale.