A simple catalytic electrosynthetic protocol for oxidative
transformations
mediated by hypervalent iodine reagents has been developed. In this
protocol, electricity drives the iodine(I)/iodine(III) catalytic cycle
enabling catalysis with in situ generated hypervalent
iodine species, thereby eliminating chemical oxidants and the inevitable
chemical waste associated with their mode of action. In addition,
no added electrolytic salts are needed in this process. The developed
method has been validated using two different hypervalent iodine-mediated
transformations: (i) the oxidative cyclization of N-allylic and N-homoallylic amides to the corresponding
dihydrooxazole and dihydro-1,3-oxazine derivatives, respectively,
and (ii) the α-tosyloxylation of ketones. Both reactions proceeded
smoothly under the developed catalytic electrosynthetic conditions
without reoptimization, featuring a wide substrate scope and excellent
functional group tolerance. In addition, scale-up to gram-scale and
catalyst recovery were easily achieved maintaining the high efficiency
of the process.