Electrochemical benzylic oxidation of C–H bonds

Abstract

Oxidized products have become increasingly valuable as building blocks for a wide variety of different processes and fine chemistry, especially in the benzylic position. We report herein a sustainable protocol for this transformation through C–H functionalization and is performed using electrochemistry as the main power source and tert-butyl hydroperoxide as the radical source for the C–H abstraction. The temperature conditions reported here do not increase above 50 °C and use an aqueous-based medium. A broad substrate scope is explored, along with bioactive molecules, to give comparable and increased product yields when compared to prior reported literature without the use of electrochemistry.