Electrochemical Benzylic C(sp3)-H Direct Amidation

Org Lett. 2024 Jan 26;26(3):653-657. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.3c04012. Epub 2024 Jan 16.

Abstract

Amide bonds are ubiquitous and found in a myriad of functional molecules. Although formed in a reliable and robust fashion, alternative amide bond disconnections provide flexibility and synthetic control. Herein we describe an electrochemical method to form the non-amide C-N bond from direct benzylic C(sp3)-H amidation. Our approach is applied toward the synthesis of secondary amides by coupling secondary benzylic substrates with substituted primary benzamides. The reaction has been scaled up to a multigram scale in flow.