Electroreductive Chemistry

Realizing Electricity as an “Imaginary Reagent”

Electricity is sometimes referred to as an “imaginary reagent” with its theoretically infinite, yet precisely controllable redox potential. We are extremely interested in developing methodologies that realize this statement by harnessing electricity to oxidize or reduce even the most tenacious of compounds. Particularly, our research efforts in electroreductive chemistry are aimed at enabling the activation of inert bonds for the construction of valuable connectivities such as carbon-carbon, carbon-boron, carbon-metal, and carbon-silicon bonds.

Representative Publications

Wood, D.; Lin, S.* “Deuterodehalogenation Under Net Reductive or Redox-Neutral Conditions Enabled by Paired Electrolysis.” Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2023DOI: 10.1002/anie.202218858. [html]

(42) Sun, G.-Q.; Yu, P.; Zhang, W.; Zhang, W.; Wang, Y.; Liao, L.-L.; Zhang, Z.; Li, L.; Lu, Z.; Yu, D.-G.*; Lin, S.* “Electrochemical reactor dictates site selectivity in N-heteroarene carboxylations.” Nature 2023615, 67–72. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05667-0 [html] [open access link]

Highlighted in Chem

Wu, X.; Gannett, C. N.; Liu, J.; Zeng, R.; Novaes, L. F. T.; Wang, H.; Abruña, H. D.*; Lin, S.* “Intercepting Hydrogen Evolution with Hydrogen-Atom Transfer: Electron-Initiated Hydrofunctionalization of Alkenes.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022144, 1778317791. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c08278 [html]

Zhang, W.; Lu, L.; Zhang, W.; Wang, Y.; Ware, S.; Mondragon, J.; Rein, J.; Strotman, N.; Lehnherr, D.; See, K.*; Lin, S.* “Electrochemically Driven Cross-Electrophile Coupling of Alkyl Halides.” Nature 2022604, 292297. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04540-4 [html] [open-access]

Lu, L.; Siu, J. C.; Lai, Y.; Lin, S.* “An Electroreductive Approach to Radical Silylation via the Activation of Strong Si–Cl Bonds.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020142, 2127221278. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c10899 [html]

Highlighted on Organic Chemistry Portal Abstracts and in Org. Chem. Highlights

(26) Zhang, W.; Lin, S.* “Electroreductive Carbofunctionalization of Alkenes with Alkyl Bromides via a Radical-Polar Crossover Mechanism.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020142, 20661–20670DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c08532 [html]

Highlighted on Organic Chemistry Portal

Kim, H.; Kim, H.; Lambert, T.; Lin, S. “Reductive Electrophotocatalysis: Merging Electricity and Light to Achieve Extreme Reduction Potentials” JACS 2020, 142, 2087-2092. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b10678 [html] For the ChemRxiv preprint version, see [html]