On the Use of Polyelectrolytes and Polymediators in Organic Electrosynthesis

Although organic electrosynthesis is generally considered to be a green method, the necessity for excess amounts of supporting electrolyte constitutes a severe drawback. Furthermore, the employment of redox mediators results in an additional separation problem. In this context, we have explored the applicability of soluble polyelectrolytes and polymediators with the TEMPO-mediated transformation of alcohols into carbonyl compounds as a test reaction. Catalyst benchmarking based on cyclic voltammetry studies indicated that the redox-active polymer can compete with molecularly defined TEMPO species. Alcohol oxidation was also highly efficient on a preparative scale, and our polymer-based approach allowed for the separation of both mediator and supporting electrolyte in a single membrane filtration step. Moreover, we have shown that both components can be reused multiple times.