The large amount of waste derived from coupling reagents is a serious drawback of peptide synthesis from a green chemistry viewpoint. To overcome this issue, we report an electrochemical peptide synthesis in a biphasic system. Anodic oxidation of triphenylphosphine (Ph3P) generates a phosphine radical cation, which serves as the coupling reagent to activate carboxylic acids, and produces triphenylphosphine oxide (Ph3P[double bond, length as m-dash]O) as a stoichiometric byproduct. In combination with a soluble tag-assisted liquid-phase peptide synthesis, the selective recovery of desired peptides and Ph3P[double bond, length as m-dash]O was achieved. Given that methods to reduce Ph3P[double bond, length as m-dash]O to Ph3P have been reported, Ph3P[double bond, length as m-dash]O could be a recyclable byproduct unlike byproducts from typical coupling reagents. Moreover, a commercial peptide active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), leuprorelin, was successfully synthesized without the use of traditional coupling reagents.
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.