Amides electrochemical

Aromatic ethers and furans undergo alkoxylation by addition upon electrolysis in an alcohol containing a suitable electrolyte.Other compounds such as aromatic hydrocarbons, alkenes, A -alkyl amides, and ethers lead to alkoxylated products by substitution. Two mechanisms for these electrochemical alkoxylations are currently discussed. The first one consists of direct oxidation of the substrate to give the radical cation which reacts with the alcohol, followed by reoxidation of the intermediate radical and either alcoholysis or elimination of a proton to the final product. In the second mechanism the primary step is the oxidation of the alcoholate to give an alkoxyl radical which then reacts with the substrate, the consequent steps then being the same as above. The formation of quinone acetals in particular seems to proceed via the second mechanism. ... 

The electrochemical oxidation of cyclic and acyclic, V-monosubstitilted and ATY-disubstituted amides and carbamates in a nucleophilic solvent, known as the Ross-Eberson-Ny berg reaction, is a synthetically very useful, clean and efficient method for the introduction of a-oxygen substituents under mild reaction conditions6 1 0. 

The electrochemical results suggested to explore the possibility of creating a C-C bond between the electrogenerated a-carbanion fi and carbon nucleophiles. Results of practical importance have hitherto been obtained upon electroreduction of 2-bromoisobutyramides in acetonitrile at Hg or Pt cathodes, in the presence of carbon dioxide and an alkylating agent. The enolate-amide fi undergoes quantitative carboxy-alkylation, to yield ester amides of 2,2-dimethylmalonic acid (ref. 16). 

Tin reagents such as Sn[N(TMS)2]2 in the presence of an amine can also be use to convert an ester to an amide. This reagent can also be used to convert p-amino esters to P-lactams. The ester-to-amide conversion has also been accomplished electrochemically, by passing electric current in the cathodic compartment. 

Electrochemical redox studies of electroactive species solubilized in the water core of reverse microemulsions of water, toluene, cosurfactant, and AOT [28,29] have illustrated a percolation phenomenon in faradaic electron transfer. This phenomenon was observed when the cosurfactant used was acrylamide or other primary amide [28,30]. The oxidation or reduction chemistry appeared to switch on when cosurfactant chemical potential was raised above a certain threshold value. This switching phenomenon was later confirmed to coincide with percolation in electrical conductivity [31], as suggested by earlier work from the group of Francoise Candau [32]. The explanations for this amide-cosurfactant-induced percolation center around increases in interfacial flexibility [32] and increased disorder in surfactant chain packing [33]. These increases in flexibility and disorder appear to lead to increased interdroplet attraction, coalescence, and cluster formation. 

Various oxidations of amides or carbamates can also generate acyliminium ions. An electrochemical oxidation forms a-alkoxy amides and lactams, which then generate... 

Eberson and Olofsson, 4> observed exactly the same effect, and advanced the same rationale, in their study of the electrochemical oxidation of 5 in acetonitrile-water mixtures, to afford mixtures of pentamethylbenzyl alcohol (10) and the amide 9. 

Porphyrin complexes are particularly suitable cores to construct dendrimers and to investigate how the behavior of an electroactive species is modified when surrounded by dendritic branches. In particular, dendritic porphyrins can be regarded as models for electron-transfer proteins like cytochrome c [42, 43]. Electrochemical investigation on Zn-porphyrins bearing polyether-amide branches has shown that the first reduction and oxidation processes are affected by the electron-rich microenvironment created by the dendritic branches [42]. Furthermore, for the third generation compound all the observed processes become irreversible. 

Table 4 Electrochemical data and group I metal cation dependence of ferrocene amide aza crown ethers and model analogues.

The reduction is usually made in a multi-compartment electrochemical cell, where the reference electrode is isolated from the reaction solution. The solvent can be water, alcohol or their mixture. As organic solvent A,A-dimethyl form amide or acetonitrile is used. Mercury is often used as a cathode, but graphite or low hydrogen overpotential electrically conducting catalysts (e.g. Raney nickel, platinum and palladium black on carbon rod, and Devarda copper) are also applicable. 

Electrolysis of amides in MeOH containing the bromide ion efficiently led to products of the Hofmann rearrangement (for example, 119 to 120 Scheme 43) [131]. This reaction, named the electrochemically induced (E-I) Hofmann rearrangement, is achieved without any bromine and base under mild and neutral reaction conditions. 

The anodic oxidation utilized in the synthesis of (137) proved equally effective. In this example, the electrochemical step was used to functionalize the amide substrate (141) (Scheme 45) [87, 88]. A... 

Direct electrochemical amide oxidation reactions have also been employed in parallel synthesis using a spatially addressable electrochemical platform [107]. In this work, an electrolysis platform was set up so that 16 electrochemical reactions could be run in parallel at the same time. The cells were set up in a 4 by 4 array in which each cell was equipped with a... 

Bicyclic [33] and 7,5-bicyclic [34, 35] dipeptides (Scheme 24) have been syn-thetized by a one-step electrochemical cyclization from various dipeptides. The selective anodic amide oxidation... 

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