Electrochemistry enabled C À H/N À Hf unctionalizations at room temperature by external oxidant-free cobalt catalysis.Thus,the sustainable cobalt electrocatalysis manifold proceeds with excellent levels of chemoselectivity and positional selectivity,a nd with ample scope,t hus allowing electrochemical C À Ha ctivation under exceedingly mild reaction conditions at room temperature in water.Notably,CÀHactivation has emerged as an increasingly potent platform for molecular syntheses, [1] with transformative applications to natural product chemistry, [2] pharmaceutical industries, [3] and material sciences, [4] among others.While C À Ht ransformations have thus far largely exploited the noble transition metals palladium, iridium, ruthenium, and rhodium, recent focus has shifted towards earth-abundant, inexpensive,a nd less toxic 3d base metals. [5] Particularly, versatile cobalt catalysis has proven powerful for the functionalization of otherwise inert CÀHb onds, [6] thus enabling inter alia step-economical heterocycle syntheses by C À H/N À Hf unctionalizations. [7] Despite indisputable advances,t hese C À H/N À Halkyne annulations were as of yet strongly limited to high reaction temperatures and/or stoichiometric amounts of toxic metals as the sacrificial oxidants. [6,8] In sharp contrast, we have now unraveled the power of electrochemical [9] CÀ H [10] activation [11] to enable the first cobalt-catalyzed C À H/N À Ha lkyne annulation at ambient temperature,o nw hich we report herein. Salient features of our approach comprise 1) unprecedented electrochemical CÀH/NÀHa ctivation/ annulations,2 )isoquinolone syntheses without toxic sacrificial metal oxidants,3)fully H 2 O-tolerant electrochemical CÀ Hactivation, and 4) cobalt-catalyzed CÀHfunctionalizations, under ambient conditions,e nabled by sustainable electricity (Figure 1). In contrast to avery recent C À Hoxygenation that was restricted to the use of an access of 240 equivalents of the alcohol substrate, [12] the electrochemical CÀH/NÀHfunctionalization is operative with close to equimolar quantities in an atom-economical fashion.We initiated our studies by exploring reaction conditions for the envisioned electrochemical C À H/N À Hf unctionalization of the benzamide 1a in as imple undivided cell with ap latinum plate cathode and ar eticulated vitreous carbon (RVC) anode (Table 1a nd see Table S-1 in the Supporting Information). [13] Thus,t he desired isoquinolone 3aa was Table 1: Optimization of the electrochemical CÀH/NÀHa lkyne annulation. Entry [TM] Solvent Base Yield [%] [a] Reaction conditions: 1 (0.5 mmol), 2 (1.0 mmol), [Co] (20 mol %), base (2.0 equiv), and solvent (10 mL) at 23 8 8Cand 4mAfor 16 husing an RVC anode, Pt-plate cathode, undivided cell. [b] Oxygenation product also formed in 17 %. [c] [TM] (10 mol %). [d] 60 8 8C, 8h.[e] No electricity. acac = acetylacetonoate, DMSO = dimethylsulfoxide, Piv = pivaloyl.Figure 1. Electrochemical cobalt-catalyzed CÀH/NÀHfunctionalization at room temperature.