Electrochemistry dials up buzz with new coupling reactions

Abstract

Chemists are amped up about two new reactions that use electricity to form different types of carbon-carbon bonds. One transformation builds sp 3 -sp 3 C–C bonds, and the other creates sp 2 -sp 3 C–C bonds. Adding these transformations to the synthetic chemist’s toolbox should spark interest in electrochemistry, an increasingly popular molecule-building tool, experts say. Electrochemical transformations use electricity rather than chemical reagents to perform reactions. Both of the new reactions are cross-electrophile couplings, which wed two different electrophiles. Although there are ways to do cross-electrophile couplings using chemical reagents, these alternatives are often plagued by homocouplings, in which one electrophile forms a bond with another electrophile of the same kind instead of with a different type of electrophile. Shannon Stahl , an expert in organic synthesis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who was not involved in the research, says in an email that “both of these studies