E-CHoSyn: Utilization of Electrochemical C–H Functionalization for the Ecofriendly Synthesis of Value-added Products from Biomass

The goal of E-CHoSyn is to develop a new generation of green C-H functionalization protocols, which can allow for the sustainable synthesis of value-added products from biomass-derived starting materials.

C-H functionalization currently constitutes one of the most popular synthetic strategies within academic and industrial chemistry research, but unfortunately most of the available C-H functionalization protocols require the use of high loadings of noble metal catalysts, overstoichiometric amounts of toxic oxidants, and harsh reaction conditions.

As a result, C-H functionalization chemistry has despite its high synthetic utility, only found limited use on the process scale so far.

With E-CHoSyn, the aim is to overcome the shortcomings of the currently available C-H functionalization methods by using electrochemistry to enable more efficient and sustainable C-H activation processes.

Moreover, we will seek to further improve the green chemistry profiles of our C-H functionalization reactions by investigating if they can be carried out without directing groups using earth-abundant metal catalysts in green solvents.

To showcase the utility of the developed C-H functionalization protocols, we will apply them in the ecofriendly syntheses of a diverse collection of densely-functionalized carboxylic acids from synthetic precursors derived from turpentine and lignocellulose, which could be of value for the synthesis of small molecule libraries, polymers or other complex molecules.