Herein, we disclose a straightforward, robust, and simple route to access β-substituted desaturated cyclic amines via an electrochemically driven desaturative β-functionalization of cyclic amines. This transformation is based on multiple single-electron oxidation processes using catalytic amounts of ferrocene. The reaction proceeds in the absence of stoichiometric amounts of electrolyte under mild conditions, affording the desired products with high chemo- and regioselectivity. The reaction was tolerant of a broad range of substrates and also enables late-stage β-C(sp3 )-H acylation of potentially valuable products. Preliminary mechanistic studies using cyclic voltammetry reveal the key role of ferrocene as a redox mediator in the reaction.
Keywords: Desaturation; Electrochemistry; Ferrocene mediator; Selectivity; β-Acylation.
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