Switchable Interfaces: Redox Monolayers on Si(100) by Electrochemical Trapping of Alcohol Nucleophiles

Synthetic Electrochemistry Enabled Esterification via Oxidative Mesolytic Cleavage of Alkoxyamines

Stable benzylic carbocations were generated via mesolytic cleavage of TEMPO-derived alkoxyamines, which was realized by electrochemical oxidation. This strategy provided an efficient and unique approach to access stabilized carbocations under mild conditions. Esterification of benzylic carbocations using carboxylic acid produced a variety of benzylic esters with a broad substrate scope and excellent functional group compatibility.

Functionalized Silicon Electrodes Toward Electrostatic Catalysis

Oriented external electric fields are now emerging as "smart effectors" of chemical changes. The key challenges in experimentally studying electrostatic catalysis are (i) controlling the orientation of fields along the reaction axis and (ii) finely adjusting the magnitudes of electrostatic stimuli. Surface models provide a versatile platform for addressing the direction of electric fields with respect to reactants and balancing the trade-off between the solubility of charged species and the intensity of electric fields. In this mini-review, we present the recent advances that have been investigated of the electrostatic effect on the chemical reaction on the monolayer-functionalized silicon surfaces. We mainly focus on elucidating the mediator/catalysis role of static electric fields induced from either solid/liquid electric double layers at electrode/electrolyte interfaces or space charges in the semiconductors, indicating the electrostatic aspects is of great significance in the semiconductor electrochemistry, redox electroactivity, and chemical bonding. Herein, the functionalization of silicon surfaces allows scientists to explore electrostatic catalysis from nanoscale to mesoscale; most importantly, it provides glimpses of the wide-ranging potentials of oriented electric fields for switching on/off the macroscale synthetic organic electrochemistry and living radical polymerization.

A temperature switchable pyridyl-zinc(II) side arm porphyrin with functionality for surface immobilisation

A pyridyl side arm porphyrin incorporating C[Formula: see text] alkyl chains at the periphery of the porphyrin suitable for surface immobilisation on HOPG has been synthesised and tested for two state switching in solution. Temperature switching, involving reversible complexation of a covalently appended pyridyl side arm to the Zn(II) porphyrin, was comprehensively characterised by using variable temperature 1H NMR (-30 to +100[Formula: see text]C) and UV-vis (10 to 90[Formula: see text]C) in toluene. Molecular modelling assisted in understanding strain within the complex.

Recent advances in the chemistry of benzo[e][1,2,4]triazinyl radicals

Benzo[e][1,2,4]triazinyl, or Blatter radicals, are stable free radicals with customisable magnetic, spectroscopic and electrochemical properties, and wide-ranging applications in synthesis and functional materials.

TEMPO-Me: An Electrochemically Activated Methylating Agent

Bench- and air-stable 1-methoxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine (TEMPO-Me) is relatively unreactive at ambient temperature in the absence of an electrochemical stimulus. In this report, we demonstrate that the one-electron electrochemical oxidation of TEMPO-Me produces a powerful electrophilic methylating agent in situ. Our computational and experimental studies are consistent with methylation proceeding via a S_N2 mechanism, with a strength comparable to the trimethyloxonium cation. A protocol is developed for the electrochemical methylation of aromatic acids using TEMPO-Me.