Spirocyclic compounds have attracted the interest of synthetic chemists because of their unique ring systems and utility in drug discovery. Many natural compounds contain spirocyclic moieties in their skeleton, which are effective in the pharmaceutical industry. For many redox processes, electroorganic synthesis is considered an environmentally friendly method, since the use of reagents with significant toxicity is replaced by electric current, so the amount of waste is often greatly reduced. Therefore, this review summarizes the construction of spirocyclic skeleton compounds via electrochemical synthesis strategies, which were published mainly in the past two decades.

Azoles and organoselenium compounds are pharmacologically important scaffolds in medicinal chemistry and natural products. We developed an efficient regioselective electrochemical aminoselenation reaction of 1,3-dienes, azoles, and diselenide derivatives to access selenium-containing allylazoles skeletons. This protocol is more economical and environmentally friendly and features a broad substrate scope; pyrazole, triazole, and tetrazolium were all tolerated under the standard conditions, which could be applied to the expedient synthesis of bioactive molecules and in the pharmaceutical industry.