Flow electrosynthesis: an enabling technology for sustainable synthesis of pharmaceuticals

The project seeks to exploit novel flow electrochemical reactors to develop novel electrosynthetic procedures that are of general interest to the pharmaceutical sector, with the objective to accelerate the transfer of the technology into industrial laboratories. The specific processes to be investigated as part of the CASE award are:
Application of flow electrosynthesis to the oxidative transformation of functional groups common in pharmaceutical intermediates: One of the most common reactions in pharmaceutical manufacturing is the synthesis of amides. Most methods available to achieve this transformation either use hazardous and corrosive intermediates, or generate copious waste. We propose a novel electrochemical transformation of aldehydes to amides catalysed by N-heterocyclic carbenes.
Protecting groups are commonly encountered in laboratory synthesis.
However, conditions required for their chemical cleavage employ excess amounts of toxic reagents. We will develop a general flow electrochemical oxidative removal of protecting groups (para-methoxybenzyl and
para-methoxyphenyl) commonly used for alcohols, carboxylic acids and amines.