Electrochemical vicinal amidoselenation of unactivated olefins via tandem Ritter reaction

Abstract

A straightforward strategy for electrochemical vicinal amidoselenation of unactivated olefins via a tandem Ritter reaction was developed. The reaction was carried out with diaryl diselenides as selenylation reagents and acetonitrile as nucleophiles. Various amidoselenation products can be afforded from unactivated olefins under mild and metal- & oxidant-free electrochemical conditions. This strategy features a broad substrate scope, good functional group tolerance, scale-up synthesis, simple operation and mild reaction conditions. Detailed mechanistic insights and DFT calculations provided strong support for the tandem radical selenylation/oxidative Ritter reaction.