Electro-organic Reactions on Organic Electrodes. Part 2. Electrochemical Asymmetric Reduction of Citraconic and Mesaconic Acids on Optically-active Poly(amino acid)-coated Electrodes

Abstract

Abstract Influence of a number of electrolytic conditions on the asymmetric yield of methylsuccinic acid (2) formed in the electrochemical reduction of citraconic acid (1) on poly(amino acid)-coated electrodes was examined. The asymmetric yield was greatly affected by the conditions, while the absolute configuration of an excess enantiomer((S)-(−)-2) remained unchanged even when a polymer with the reversed configuration of the monomer unit was used. The configuration of the excess enantiomer was also unchanged in the asymetric reduction of mesaconic acid which is the geometrical isomer of 1.