Electroreduction halides

Electroreduction of the cationic Rh(IlI) complex [Rh(Por)(MeNFl2)2l in CH2CI2 followed by reaction with alkyl halides has been utilized to form a-alkyl products. The reaction scheme proposed for this reaction was one-electron reduction of Rh(lll) to form Rh(Por)-. This can either dimerize or attack the carbon atom of the alkyl halide RCH2X, the latter step involving elimination of either X- or 2t7.2.ix reactions of Co(ll) and Fe(II) porphyrins M(Por) with... 

Reisse used activated zinc for aqueous Barbier-type reactions.66 Submicromic zinc powder produced by pulsed sono-electroreduction is about three times more effective than the commercial variety. The stereochemical course of the allylation and propargylation of several aldehydes with crotyl and propenyl halides using zinc powder as the... 

The electroreductive carbonylation and carboxylation of organic halides catalyzed by different metal complexes is summarized in Section 9.10.5. Electrogenerated Ni° complexes containing bpy193-196 or pentamethyldiethylenetriamine196-199 ligands are effective catalysts for the electrosynthesis of... 

The reduction of organic halides is of practical importance for the treatment of effluents containing toxic organic halides and also for valuable synthetic applications. Direct electroreduction of alkyl and aryl halides is a kinetically slow process that requires high overpotentials. Their electrochemical activation is best achieved by use of electrochemically generated low-valent transition metal catalysts. Electrocatalytic coupling reactions of organic halides were reviewed in 1997.202... 

Nickel-bpy and nickel-pyridine catalytic systems have been applied to numerous electroreductive reactions,202 such as synthesis of ketones by heterocoupling of acyl and benzyl halides,210,213 addition of aryl bromides to activated alkenes,212,214 synthesis of conjugated dienes, unsaturated esters, ketones, and nitriles by homo- and cross-coupling involving alkenyl halides,215 reductive polymerization of aromatic and heteroaromatic dibromides,216-221 or cleavage of the C-0 bond in allyl ethers.222... 

The complex [Ni(bpy)2]2+ catalyzes the electroreductive coupling of organic halides and carbon monoxide into ketones under a CO atmosphere,226 or in the presence of a metal carbonyl,227 especially iron pentacarbonyl. Unsymmetrical ketones have been obtained from mixtures of two different organic halides.228 CO is very reactive towards reduced Ni° species to form the stable [Ni°(bpy)(CO)2]° complex, which probably evolves to a transient arylnickel [Nin(bpy)(R)(CO)X]° complex in the presence of both ArX and [Ni°(bpy)]° species.229,230... 

The third class of metal catalysts includes nickel and cobalt complexes of Schiff bases and nitrogen macrocyclic ligands, which can form on electroreduction cobalt(I) and nickel(I) reactive intermediates for the activation of organic halides. 

The electrolysis of alkyl halides on platinum cathode and tin anode has been mentioned above. A completely different mechanism is associated with alkylation on tin cathodes. Electroreduction of allyl bromide on tin electrodes yields tetraallylstannane (Ca 90%). This is done in acetonitrile solutions with LiClC>4, Et4NBr or BujNBr as electrolyte and followed by CV with Ag/AgBr reference. Yields decrease to 78% in DMF. The proposed mechanism67 in this case is ... 

The same electrochemical process was also used for the coupling between aldehydes or ketones and activated alkyl halides such as a-chloroesters, -nitriles, and -ketones as well as aya-dichloroesters.334 Electroanalytical studies have shown initial electroreduction of Fe(n) to Fe(i) and subsequent formation of an iron organometallic intermediate (e.g., a 7t-allyliron complex in Equation (27)) before reaction with the corresponding carbonyl compounds.335... 

Electrochemical methods are available for the direct dehalogenation of organic halides to a limited extent fluorides and monochlorides are generally not reducible [1], In the presence of transition-metal complexes as mediators (Med), however, the electrolysis of halocarbons (RX) can be performed more effectively and selectively under various conditions [155-158]. Mediated electroreduction is most efficient when the electron transfer step E° (Med/Med -) is more negative than E° (RX/RX -) [157] (cf. Section 18.4.1). 

Because the reduction potential of ether is usually more negative than that of halides, examples that belong to this category are rather rare. Generally, cathodic reduction of ethers is similar to that of alcohols, and nonactivated ethers are not reducible under the conditions of electroreduction. Activated ethers such as benzylic and allylic ethers are elec-trochemically reduced to a limited extent (Scheme 7) [1, 15, 16]. Reduction of epoxides is usually difficult however, electroreductive cleavage of activated epoxides to the corresponding alcohols is reported [17, 18]. The cleavage of the C—O bond of ethers is more easily accomplished in anodic oxidation than in cathodic reduction, which is stated in Chapter 6. 

Organic electroreductive coupling reactions using transition-metal complexes as catalysts have been widely investigated. Reviews on the subject have been published [89, 90]. The method involving the most common transition-metal complexes (nickel, cobalt, palladium) appears to be a useful tool to synthetize heterocycles from organic halides via radical intermediates. Nickel catalyst precursors are nickel(II) salts that are cathodically reduced either to nickel(I) or to nickel(O) and cobalt catalyst... 

The electroreduction of iminium salts in the presence of alkyl halides has been applied to the synthesis of alkaloid-type compounds as depicted in Scheme 87 [127,128]. 

The electroreductive couphng process can also been performed with heteroaryl halides as 2- or 3-bromothiophene or 3-bromofuran instead of aryl hahdes. 

Recently, chloro-, bromo-, and iodoben-zenes have been subjected to electroreduction using Ni(0) complex mediators to yield biphenyl. NiCl2L2 and NiBr2L2 [L= P(Ph)3, (Ph)2PCH2CH2P(Ph)2] have been used as catalysts [259-265]. Pro-tic media such as alcohols, that is, methanol, ethanol or alcohol-water mixtures are found to be suitable solvents for achieving the electrosynthesis of biaryls from aryl halides according to a procedure that involves a catalytic process by nickel-2,2 -bipyridine complexes [266]. Electrochemical cross-coupling between... 

Scheme 63 Electroreductive coupling of aryl halides to biaryls.

Tab. 15 Electroreductive coupling of organic halides by using Ni complexes as mediators [268]... 

The electroreductively produced ArNi(II) XL2 (162) can lead to the corresponding aryl-carboxylates (163) [284]. Electroreduction of the arylnickel complexes (162), formed by insertion of an electrogenerated [Ni(0)L2] into aryl halide (161) (X = Br, Cl) in the presence of CO2 in a THE/HMPA-LiCl04 (or BU4NBE4) system, affords the carboxylate (163) (Scheme 66) [271-273]. 

Scheme 64 Poly(l,4-phenylene) polymers by electroreduction of aryl halides.

P, y-Unsaturated esters (184) have been synthesized by a one-step electrochemical procedure from a-chloroesters (183) and aryl or vinyl halides (Scheme 73b) [294, 295]. This novel electroreductive cross-coupling method is based on the use of a Ni(II)(bpy) catalyst and a sacrificial aluminum anode in a one-compartment cell (Scheme 73). The whole cathodic process progresses at —1.2 V (SCE) (Scheme 73c),... 

Tab. 16 Nickel-catalyzed electroreductive coupling of a-chloroesters with aryl and vinyl halides [294]...

The Pd(0)-catalyzed electroreductive coupling of aryl halides (303) is a currently relevant topic. In the electroreduction of aryl halides (307) the replacement of the halogen atom by hydrogen predominantly takes place giving (306). Difficulties are encountered, however, when aryl-aryl coupling products (305) via (304) are wanted (Scheme 116). An efficient electroreductive coupling of aryl bromides (307) (X = Br) and iodides (307) (X = I) into biaryls (310) has been shown to occur in a DMF/Et4NOTs/(Pb cathode) system in the presence of Pd(0) and/or Pd(II) catalysts (Scheme 117) [440]. 

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