A Three-Phase Indirect Electrolysis System for Kilo-scale Generation of C–S Bond Products

Abstract

The development of new strategy for environmentally friendly, cost-effective and large-scale electro-synthesis of anticancer drugs is highly desirable to replace high-cost traditional methods and realize high atomic economy. GW 610, an antitumor agent with potent and selective anticancer activity against lung, colon, and breast cancer cell lines in real medical treatment processes, has a market price of ~10⁷ USD/kg and calls for novel methods like electro-synthesis to reduce the cost. Here, for the first time, we design a solid-liquid-gas three-phase indirect electrolysis system based on a kind of microwave-synthesized polyoxometalate-based metal-organic framework (MW-POMOF) that can converse S–S bond substrates into valuable C–S bond products like anticancer drug molecules (e.g., GW 610). Specifically, the solid-phase MW-POMOF as heterogeneous redox mediator exhibits the excellent electrocatalytic efficiency for the formation of liquid-phase C–S bond products (yields up to 95%) coupling with the generation of gas-phase H₂ product (~402 μmol·g^–1·h^–1), resulting in an interesting three-phase indirect electrolysis system. Remarkably, it enables the kilo-scale production (~1 kg in a batch experiment) of GW 610 at one thousandth of the market price (from ~10⁷ to ~3200 USD/kg). This work may inaugurate a new electrocatalytic avenue to explore porous crystalline materials in electrocatalysis field.