A practical guide to electrosynthesis

Abstract

Organic Electrosynthesis is an old and rich discipline. By exploiting the cheapest and greenest source of electrons, electricity itself, electrolysis has been shown to be a powerful method to perform redox reactions under mild, safe and green conditions. The field is in the midst of a renaissance and there is little doubt that it will become one of the classic methods to activate small organic molecules in the very near future. Nevertheless, electrosynthesis can be rather daunting for a beginner. In this review, we will guide synthetic chemists through their first organic and organometallic electrosyntheses by reviewing the essential aspects of the field and by sharing practical tips. We will also cover the fundamentals of electroanalytical techniques, such as cyclic voltammetry since they are powerful methods to investigate mechanisms. Finally, these concepts will be examined in practice through three case studies.

Electrosynthesis: A Practical Way to Access Highly Reactive Intermediates

“…In the meantime, the equipment required to perform organic electrolysis has become com-mercially available, allowing 'eCurious' an easy entry into the field. 4 Still, even if a plethora of electrosynthetic methodologies has been developed over the century, they are yet to be found within the Chemists' standard synthetic toolbox. Electrosyntheses are still plagued with a reputation of being black boxes, complicated to run and requiring a large amount of wasteful supporting electrolyte.…”

Vapor-phase hydrothermal construction of defective MoS2 for highly selective electrocatalytic hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde

“…As an old and rich discipline, electrocatalysis organic synthesis has been shown to be a powerful method to perform synthesis reactions under green, mild and safe conditions. 1 Among which, electrocatalytic hydrogenation (ECH) is an economical and environmentally friendly approach to realize the hydrogenation of organics containing unsaturated chemical bonds using water as the hydrogen donor. [2][3][4] ECH utilizes chemisorbed hydrogen (H ads ) via proton or water reduction, 5,6 which avoids the difficult activation of low-soluble H 2 in solvents, and thereby the elevated pressure and temperature that are usually desired in thermocatalysis.…”

Electrochemically Accessing ROS‐Related Cytotoxicity through the Oxygen Reduction Reaction to Identify Antimicrobial Agents**

“…Electrochemistry provides powerful and feasible tools to study electron transfer‐associated chemical reactions, with precisely controlled electron flow directions and electron energy levels [27–29] . Here, we built a dual‐electrochemical workstation configuration to monitor the production of ROS extra‐ and intra‐cellularly and found the capability of inorganic substances to deliver electrons to oxygen is critical for cytotoxicity.…”

“…Electrochemistry provides powerful and feasible tools to study electron transfer-associated chemical reactions, with precisely controlled electron flow directions and electron energy levels. [27][28][29] Here, we built a dual-electrochemical work-station configuration to monitor the production of ROS extraand intra-cellularly and found the capability of inorganic substances to deliver electrons to oxygen is critical for cytotoxicity. We compared different forms of ZnO, Ag, Au, Pt, TiO 2 , α-Fe 2 O 3 , CuO, MgO, Ca 5 (PO 4 ) 3 (OH) and CaCO 3 on the same apparatus, with results in good agreement on their apparent cytotoxicity.…”