A Green Approach: Vicinal Oxidative Electrochemical Alkene Difunctionalization

Electrochemistry is now regarded as one of the most efficient ways to synthesize highly functionalized moieties, such as those of the difunctionalized vicinal alkene family, from simpler and more commercially available substrates. These vicinal transformations usually involve transition-metal catalysts, hypervalent iodine reagents, or photocatalysts to form new bonds and often generate unwanted by-products. Herein, we have outline examples of electrochemical alkene difunctionalization reactions that do not require a metal catalyst incorporated into the solution and yet still proceed with excellent atom economies.