Alkyl halides electrochemical reductive cleavage

Complexes of the type [Rh(TPP)(RX)] [RX = C H X (n = 3-5, X = Cl or Br n = 3-6, X = I) TPP = dianion of tetraphenylporphyrin] were prepared by Anderson et al. (179). The nature of RX was found to determine the overall electrochemical behavior for the reduction of [Rh(TTP)(RX)]. For some complexes, specifically those where X = Br and I, the bound alkyl halide could be reduced without cleavage of the metal-carbon bond. This resulted in the electrochemically initiated conversion of [Rh(TPP)(RX)] to a [Rh(TPP)(R)] complex. The E. value for this reduction was dependent on the chain length and halide of the RX group and followed the trend predicted for alkyl halides. The reduction of the bound RX occured at Ei values significantly less negative that those for reduction of free RX under the same solution conditions. 

Cobaloxime(I) generated by the electrochemical reductions of cobaloxime(III), the most simple model of vitamin Bi2, has been shown to catalyze radical cyclization of bromoacetals.307 Cobalt(I) species electrogenerated from [ConTPP] also catalyze the reductive cleavage of alkyl halides. This catalyst is much less stable than vitamin Bi2 derivatives.296 It has, however, been applied in the carboxylation of benzyl chloride and butyl halides with C02.308 Heterogeneous catalysis of organohalides reduction has also been studied at cobalt porphyrin-film modified electrodes,275,3 9-311 which have potential application in the electrochemical sensing of pollutants. 

Several research groups ha ve been involved in the study of ET reactions from an electrochemically generated aromatic radical anion to alkyl halides in order to describe the dichotomy between ET and polar substitution (SN2). The mechanism for indirect reduction of alkyl halides by aromatic mediators has been described in several papers. For all aliphatic alkyl halides and most benzylic halides the cleavage of the carbon-halogen bond takes place concertedly with the... 

Currently, Ni(I) macrocyclic complexes have attracted much attention. This is because Ni(II) tetraaza macrocyclic complexes catalyze the electrochemical reduction of C02 and alkyl halides, and it is proposed that the Ni(I) species are involved in such reactions (1,2, 76-79, 82, 124-126). Furthermore, F430, a Ni(II) hydrocorphinoid complex, is a prosthetic group of methyl coenzyme M reductase that catalyzes the reductive cleavage of S-methyl coenzyme M to methane in the final stage of C02 reduction to methane (127-130). An EPR signal detected in whole cells of Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum has been attributed to an Ni(I) form of F430 in intact active enzyme (131,132). 

In the 1980s, Andrieux et al. [83] studied the electrochemical behavior of alkyl halides in DMF using cyclic voltammetry. For Fbutyl iodide, two separate waves were recorded, each one related to the exchange of one electron. The first one was attributed to the reduction of the halide with cleavage of the C-I bond to give a t-butyl radical and an iodine anion. The second one is the reduction of this radical into the t-butyl anion. For sec-butyl iodide, both peaks are very close... 

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