Advances in Construction of N-Heterocycles via Electrochemical Methods

Abstract

Nitrogen heterocycles constitute the core structural units of many natural products and pharmaceutically relevant man-made compounds. Their importance and demand have led to the development of a number of classical methods for their synthesis. The continued search for more efficient, greener, and practical methods has led to the adoption of non-conventional approaches too. Electroorganic synthesis is one such approach, which has gained huge popularity in recent years, mainly due to the ready availability of compact reaction set-ups. Electrochemical reactions generally proceed under ambient conditions with good atom economy and better E-values. Occasionally, a few transformations that were impossible using the traditional reagents were realized by the judicious combination of electrodes, electrolytes, and substrates. The recent developments in the area are summarized here. Each section is devoted to detailed discussions on electrochemical reactions that installed the important N-heterocycle it is titled after.