Organic Sonoelectrochemistry

Electrosynthesis has a respected tradition in organic chemistry, and the Kolbe electrooxidation of aqueous acetate solutions is one of the oldest known organic reactions.i Since then there have been reports at intervals until the development of high-dielectric organic solvents for routine use in the 1960s, which vastly increased the scope of systems that could be studied. Despite this, exploitation of organic electrosynthesis has lagged behind expectations, and it is an aim of workers in the field to redress this situation. 

A recent approach to this end has been the combination of ultrasound with electrochemistry. Perhaps the most striking influence of ultrasound concerns heterogeneous systems as shown in previous chapters, and a typical heterogeneous interface is that between an electrode surface and an electrolyte. 

Organic Electrochemistry (Baizer, M. M. Lund, H. Eds.), Marcel Dekker, New York, 3 Ed., 1991. 

See various industrial reports, for instance (a) Atkinson, N. Process Engineering, Nov. 1988 p. 44 (b) Dotson, R.L. Interface 1994,3, 95. 

Since then there has been a notable increase in this field, supported by the developments in both electrochemical apparatus and methodology and in ultrasonic technology. 

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Walton DJ, Mason TJ (1998) In Jean-Louis Luche (ed) Organic sonoelectrochemistry in synthetic organic sonochemistry. Plenum Press, London, pp 263-300... 

D.J. Walton and T.J. Mason, Organic sonoelectrochemistry. Synthetic Organic Sonochemistry, J.-L. Luche (ed.). 

Apphcations of ultrasound to electrochemistry have also seen substantial recent progress. Beneficial effects of ultrasound on electroplating and on organic synthetic apphcations of organic electrochemistry (71) have been known for quite some time. More recent studies have focused on the underlying physical theory of enhanced mass transport near electrode surfaces (72,73). Another important appHcation for sonoelectrochemistry has been developed by J. Reisse and co-workers for the electroreductive synthesis of submicrometer powders of transition metals (74). 

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