Electrochemical chlorination of least hindered tertiary and benzylic C(sp3)–H bonds

Abstract

Functionalization of C(sp³)–H bonds should greatly benefit the synthesis of natural products and pharmaceuticals. One of the greatest challenges is to develop new synthetic strategies for industrial applicability. Herein we report an electrochemical method for the chlorination/bromination of tertiary and secondary benzylic C(sp³)–H bonds. This method tolerates many functional groups. Moreover, this reaction can be easily scaled up to 100 grams without losing its efficiency.