Spiro compounds are widely existed in biological activities and natural products. However, developing new strategies for their efficient synthesis and derivatization is still faced with challenge. Outstanding progresses have been made in the synthesis of spiro compounds through dearomatization of aromatic compounds, which were mainly mediated by the hypervalent iodine reagents. Herein, we reported a method of anodic oxidation spiroamination and spirolactonization of anisole derivatives, with concomitant cathodic reduction of protons in the absence of hypervalent iodine reagents. A wide variety of spiropyrrolidines and spirolactones with diverse functional groups were applicable scaffolds in this transformation, with yields up to 97%. Moreover, hectogram-scale synthesis could supply target products with 83% yields in flow electrochemical cell using carbon paper as anode, nickel plate as cathode, which showed the potential application of this method.
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