Development of electrochemical processes for nitrene generation and transfer

An electrochemical strategy for running nitrogen-transfer reactions on chemically inert anode surfaces has been developed. The generation and trapping of highly reactive nitrene-transfer reagents can be accomplished under mild conditions on platinum electrodes. The key factor that accounts for the high levels of chemoselectivity in this process is the phenomenon of overpotential. We have found that molecules that are similar in terms of propensity toward oxidation can be differentiated on the basis of their affinity to a given electrode surface. Thereby, reactive species can be selectively generated in the presence of acceptor molecules of interest. Specifically, a wide range of structurally dissimilar olefins can be transformed into the corresponding aziridines in the presence of N-aminophthalimide. Likewise, nitrene generation in the presence of sulfoxides leads to their chemoselective transformation into the corresponding sulfoximines. In this paper we discuss the underlying mechanistic foundation of these reactions.