Electrochemical hydrogenations

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Reduction chemistry remains a vital and powerful technique throughout academia and industry in the synthesis of complex organic molecules. Moreover, hydrogenation methods should become more important, as society transitions away from the use of highly reduced petroleum in the chemical industries toward the more oxidised biomass, in which reduction methods are necessary to bring it to application. Despite the importance and prevalence of this reaction to organic synthesis, typical strategies often employ the use of expensive transition metal catalysts, such as iridium or rhodium, in combination with pressurised vessels of explosive hydrogen gas, or, in the case of transfer hydrogenation methods are limited in substrate scope.As a possible alternative, we aim to explore the use of electrochemistry and base metal catalysis to develop hydrogenation methods that are more environmentally benign, inexpensive and selective.