Electro-organic synthesis: an environmentally benign alternative for heterocycle synthesis

Abstract

Heterocyclic compounds are considered to be one of the most established structural classes due to their extensive application in agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and organic materials. Over the past few years, the development of heterocyclic compounds has gone through a considerable renaissance from conventional traditional methodologies to non-conventional electro-organic synthesis. Replacing metal catalysts, strong oxidants and multi-step methodologies with metal and strong oxidant-free single-step protocols has revolutionized the field of sustainable organic synthesis. Electro-organic synthesis has evolved as a scalable and sustainable approach in different synthetic protocols in an environment-benign manner. The current review outlines the recent developments in C–C, C–N, C–S and C–O/Se bond formation for heterocycle synthesis using electrochemical methods. Different synthetic strategies and their detailed mechanistic description are presented to enlighten the future applications of electrochemistry in heterocycle synthesis.