Florian Stecker

ortho-Selective Phenol-Coupling Reaction by Anodic Treatment on Boron-Doped Diamond Electrode Using Fluorinated Alcohols

Enlarged scope by fluorinated mediators: Oxyl radicals are easily formed on boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes and can be exploited for the ortho-selective coupling to the corresponding biphenols (see scheme). At partial conversion, a clean transformation is achieved that can be applied to electron-rich as well as fluorinated phenols.

Highly selective generation of vanillin by anodic degradation of lignin: a combined approach of electrochemistry and product isolation by adsorption.

Summary The oxidative degradation of lignin into a variety of valuable products has been under investigation since the first half of the last century. Especially, the chance to claim this cheap, abundant and renewable source for the production of the important aroma chemical vanillin (1) was one of the major driving forces of lignin research. So far most of the developed methods fail in technical application since no viable concept for work-up is included. This work represents a combined approach of electrochemical conversion of Kraft lignin and product recovery by adsorption on a strongly basic anion exchange resin. Electrolysis conditions are optimized regarding reaction temperatures below 100 °C allowing operation of aqueous electrolytes in simple experimental set-up. Employing ion exchange resins gives rise to a selective removal of low molecular weight phenols from the strongly alkaline electrolyte without acidification and precipitation of remaining lignin. The latter represents a significant advantage compared with conventional work-up protocols of lignin solutions.

Highly selective electrosynthesis of biphenols on graphite electrodes in fluorinated media.

The direct and selective phenol coupling reaction that provides biphenols still represents a challenge in organic synthesis. The recently developed electrosynthesis on boron-doped diamond anodes with fluorinated additives was developed further to allow the application to less-expensive electrodes and fluorinated media. This advanced protocol allows the highly selective anodic phenol coupling reaction on graphite with a broad scope.