Simple and Scalable Electrochemical Reduction of Alkyl Oxalates Using Carbon-Based Electrodes

In this study, a simple and robustly scalable electrochemical method for the reduction of alkyl oxalates was established. The use of electricity as a universal agent for reduction applications avoids the stoichiometric formation of reagent waste and the use of transition metal catalysts. In addition, employing readily available carbon electrode materials like glassy carbon or graphite provide important prerequisites for later technical applications. This goes along with common solvents such as acetonitrile and acetic acid in combination with a flow electrolysis setup, allowing easy scalability. The scale-up experiments on up to a 120 mmol scale proved the practical relevance of the method and the potential use for industrial large-scale synthesis. The method is suitable for a variety of esters, 14 examples up to 97% yield, and the simple deuterium incorporation to obtain highly deuterated alkyl glycolates.