Electrochemical Oxidation of Benzylic C-H Bonds

Various catalytic procedures based on transition metals have been developed for the oxidation of organic compounds. Especially, new methods and strategies for the direct functionalization of C–H bonds are of current interest in retrosynthetic analysis, affecting the synthesis of natural products, medicines, and materials [1]. In the past decades, the most reported methods for the activation of C-H bonds used highly toxic or expensive catalysts (such as ruthenium, iridium, iron) [2]. Herein, we report an electrochemical method that can emerge as a useful tool for C-H oxidation using. We used different metal and carbon-based electrodes and the optimal conditions contain solvent, electrolyte and potential. The best reaction was performed in the presence of two nickel- based electrodes and 95% of ketone was formed. The developed method is simple, inexpensive, accessible and reusable.