Electrochemical thiocyanation of barbituric acids

Supporting Electrolyte-Free Electrochemical Oxidative C-H Sulfonylation and Thiocyanation of Fused Pyrimidin-4-Ones in an All-Green Electrolytic System

An electrooxidative C-H functionalization is a widely accepted route to obtain sulfur-containing arenes and heteroarenes. However, this process often involves using non-recyclable supporting electrolytes, (co)solvents like hexafluoroisopropanol, additives like acid, or catalysts. The use of additional reagents can increase costs and waste, reducing atom efficiency. Moreover, unlike other nitrogen-containing heterocycles, there have only been sporadic reports of electrochemical C-H functionalization in fused pyrimidin-4-ones, and an electrolyte-free process has yet to be developed. This work demonstrates that such anodic coupling reactions can be performed in an all-green electrolytic system without using such additional electrolytes or HFIP, maintaining a high atom economy. This C-H functionalization strategy utilizes inexpensive sodium sulfinates and ammonium thiocyanate as sulfonylating and thiocyanating agents in an undivided cell at a constant current, using a mixture of CH3 CN/H2 O as solvent at room temperature. Thus, fused pyrimidin-4-ones can be selectively converted into C3-sulfonylated and -thiocyanated derivatives in moderate to good yields.

Electrochemical Synthesis of α-Thiocyanated/Methoxylated Ketones Using Enol Acetates

We have developed the synthesis of α-substituted ketone compounds with enol acetates in an electrochemical way. By using cheap NH4SCN and MeOH as the radical sources, a series of valuable α-thiocyanates/methoxy ketones were synthesized under mild electrolysis conditions in acceptable yields with diverse functional group compatibility. Additionally, the scale-up experiment and synthetic transformations reveal potential applications in organic synthesis.