Abstract
The reliance on wasteful stoichiometric reagents to accomplish dehydration reactions
such as esterification, amidation, and alcohol substitution is a longstanding challenge
in synthetic chemistry. To address this problem, an electrochemical approach has been
developed as a new conceptual platform for dehydration reactions. As a proof-of-concept
demonstration, an electrochemical esterification protocol has been described that
proceeds at room temperature, without acid or base additives, and without consuming
stoichiometric reagents. This approach therefore overcomes key complications of esterification
chemistry, and we envision that it will similarly enable improvements to a range of
important, related transformations.
1 Introduction
2 An Electrochemical Design for Catalytic Dehydration
3 Electrochemical Esterification
4 Conclusions
Key words
catalysis - dehydration - electrochemistry - esterification - green chemistry
