eHydrogenation: Hydrogen‐free Electrochemical Hydrogenation
Camilla Russo, Matthew C. Leech, Jamie M. Walsh, Joe I. Higham, Lisa Giannessi, Emmanuelle Lambert, Cyrille Kiaku, Darren L. Poole, J. S. Mason, Charles A. I. Goodall, Perry Devo, Mariateresa Giustiniano, Marco Radi, Kevin Lam
Abstract
Hydrogenation reactions are staple transformations commonly used across scientific fields to synthesise pharmaceuticals, natural products, and various functional materials. However, the vast majority of these reactions require the use of a toxic and costly catalyst leading to unpractical, hazardous and often functionally limited conditions. Herein, we report a new, general, practical, efficient, mild and high-yielding hydrogen-free electrochemical method for the reduction of alkene, alkyne, nitro and azido groups. Finally, this method has been applied to deuterium labelling.