Given
its many distinct characteristics, electrochemistry represents
an attractive approach to meet the prevailing trends in organic synthesis.
In particular, electrocatalysisa process that integrates electrochemistry
and small-molecule catalysishas the potential to substantially
improve the scope of synthetic electrochemistry and provide a wide
range of useful transformations. Recently, we have demonstrated new
catalytic approaches that combine electrochemistry and redox-metal
catalysis for the oxidative difunctionalization of alkenes to access
a diverse array of vicinally functionalized structures. This Perspective
details our design principles underpinning the development of electrochemical
diazidation, dichlorination, and halotrifluoromethylation of alkenes,
which were built on foundational work by others in the areas of synthetic
electrochemistry, radical chemistry, and transition-metal catalysis.
The introduction of redox-active Mn catalysts allows the generation
of radical intermediates from readily available reagents at low potentials
under mild conditions. These transition metals also impart selectivity
control over the alkene functionalization processes by functioning
as radical group transfer agents. As such, our electrocatalytic difunctionalization
reactions exhibit excellent chemoselectivity, broad substrate scope,
and high functional group compatibility. Specifically, anodically
coupled electrolysis, an approach that pairs two single-electron oxidation
events in a parallel manner, enables the development of regio- and
chemoselective heterodifunctionalization of alkenes. The products
of the new transformations we describe in this Perspective represent
pertinent structures in numerous medicinally relevant compounds. We
anticipate that the design parameters presented here are general and
will provide a platform for the development of electrocatalytic systems
for other challenging organic redox transformations.