Electrocatalytic hydrogenation of cyanoarenes, nitroarenes, quinolines, and pyridines under mild conditions with a proton-exchange membrane reactor

• Koichi Mitsudo,
• Atsushi Osaki,
• Haruka Inoue,
• Eisuke Sato,
• Naoki Shida,
• Mahito Atobe and
• Seiji Suga

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2024, 20, 1560–1571, doi:10.3762/bjoc.20.139

• cyanoarenes, nitroarenes, quinolines, and pyridines using a proton-exchange membrane (PEM) reactor was developed. Cyanoarenes were then reduced to the corresponding benzylamines at room temperature in the presence of ethyl phosphate. The reduction of nitroarenes proceeded at room temperature, and a variety of

• anilines were obtained. The quinoline reduction was efficiently promoted by adding a catalytic amount of p-toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA) or pyridinium p-toluenesulfonate (PPTS). Pyridine was also reduced to piperidine in the presence of PTSA. Keywords: cyanoarene; nitroarene; PEM reactor; pyridine

• ][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. The PEM reactor included a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) consisting of a PEM and an electro-catalyst supported on carbon (Figure 1). Humidified hydrogen gas (H2) or H2O was injected into the anodic chamber and the substrate passed through the cathodic

Electrochemical hydrogenation of enones using a proton-exchange membrane reactor: selectivity and utility

• Koichi Mitsudo,
• Haruka Inoue,
• Yuta Niki,
• Eisuke Sato and
• Seiji Suga

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2022, 18, 1055–1061, doi:10.3762/bjoc.18.107

• hydrogenation of enones using homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. Meanwhile, electrochemical systems using a proton-exchange membrane (PEM) reactor have been shown to be powerful tools for electrochemical hydrogenation [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. A PEM reactor

• consists of a membrane called a membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which can act as supporting electrolyte, electrode, and heterogeneous catalyst. Therefore, the further addition of a supporting electrolyte is not necessary for the electrochemical reactions using a PEM reactor, which offers clean and

• ]. For instance, they recently reported a stereoselective reduction of alkynes to Z-alkenes using a PEM reactor. The use of a Pd/C cathode catalyst and the appropriate cathode potential realize the selective synthesis of Z-alkenes [22][23][24]. They also reported the stereoselective hydrogenation of α,β