Electrosynthesis remains an attractive eco-friendly process since the use of electrons as a reagent does not involve the formation of any side-products. Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) can be used to replace the volatile organic solvents used in electrosynthesis increasing its experimental appeal. This will also avoid the addition of supporting electrolyte owing to inherent conductivity of RTILs. In this project, we are interested in studying electroreduction of activated alkenes in RTILs. The compound, 2-cyclohexen-1-one was first subjected to electroreduction in a mixture of ionic liquids/water using an undivided electrochemical cell. Following electrolysis, the organic products were separated and structures were confirmed by IR and NMR spectroscopy. The reaction conditions were optimized to obtain the dimeric product, (1,1'-bicyclohexyl)-3,3'-dione in 92% yield. The RTIL was recycled and successfully reused in these reactions. The experiments are underway to apply these reaction conditions for the electroreductive cyclization of other activated alkenes.

Electrochemical reductive cyclization of activated alkenes in room temperature ionic liquids

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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