Transition-metal-free electrochemical cross-electrophile coupling of activated benzyl alcohols and primary alkyl

Guang Chen1, Changhao Huang1, Like Luo1

  • 1State Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.

Science Advances
|January 2, 2026
PubMed

Related Concept Videos

Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Chlorination and Bromination of Benzene01:15

Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Chlorination and Bromination of Benzene

Chlorination and bromination are important classes of electrophilic aromatic substitutions, where benzene reacts with chlorine or bromine in the presence of a Lewis acid catalyst to give halogenated substitution products. A Lewis acid such as aluminium chloride or ferric chloride catalyzes the chlorination, and ferric bromide catalyzes the bromination reactions. During the bromination of alkenes, bromine polarizes and becomes electrophilic. However, in the bromination of benzene, the bromine...
10.5K
Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Friedel–Crafts Alkylation of Benzene01:17

Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Friedel–Crafts Alkylation of Benzene

Friedel–Crafts reactions were developed in 1877 by the French chemist Charles Friedel and the American chemist James Crafts. Friedel–Crafts alkylation refers to the replacement of an aromatic proton with an alkyl group via electrophilic aromatic substitution. A Lewis acid catalyst such as aluminum chloride reacts with an alkyl halide to form a carbocation. The resulting carbocation then reacts with the aromatic ring and undergoes a series of electron rearrangements before giving the final...
7.9K
Radical Substitution: Allylic Bromination01:27

Radical Substitution: Allylic Bromination

In organic synthesis, the formation of products can be altered by changing the reaction conditions. For example, a dibromo addition product is formed when propene is treated with bromine at room temperature. In contrast, propene undergoes allylic substitution in non-polar solvents at high temperatures to give 3-bromopropene. In order to avoid the addition reaction, the bromine concentration must be kept as low as possible throughout the reaction. This can be achieved using N-bromosuccinimide...
6.4K
Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Friedel–Crafts Acylation of Benzene01:11

Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution: Friedel–Crafts Acylation of Benzene

The Friedel–Crafts acylation reactions involve the addition of an acyl group to an aromatic ring. These reactions proceed via electrophilic aromatic substitution by employing an acyl chloride and a Lewis acid catalyst such as aluminum chloride to form aryl ketone.
8.6K
Halogenation of Alkenes02:46

Halogenation of Alkenes

Halogenation is the addition of chlorine or bromine across the double bond in an alkene to yield a vicinal dihalide. The reaction occurs in the presence of inert and non-nucleophilic solvents, such as methylene chloride, chloroform, or carbon tetrachloride.
Consider the bromination of cyclopentene. Molecular bromine is polarized in the proximity of the π electrons of cyclopentene. An electrophilic bromine atom adds across the double bond, forming a cyclic bromonium ion intermediate.
18.3K
Regioselectivity of Electrophilic Additions-Peroxide Effect02:35

Regioselectivity of Electrophilic Additions-Peroxide Effect

In the presence of organic peroxides, the addition of hydrogen bromide to an alkene yields the isomer that is not predicted by Markovnikov’s rule. For example, the addition of hydrogen bromide to 2-methylpropene in the presence of peroxides gives 1-bromo-2-methylpropane. This addition reaction proceeds via a free radical mechanism, which reverses the regioselectivity. The free radical reaction mechanism involves three stages: initiation, propagation, and termination.
10.1K