1856
C.-H. Li et al. / Tetrahedron 70 (2014) 1855e1860
Table 1
a ‘reagent’ allow the formation of highly reactive intermediates
(such as the electrogenerated bases, EGBs). These EGBs are pro-
duced under mild conditions and can replace toxic and harmful
reagents (phosgene, isocyanates, etc.) with low environmental
impact. Molecules, containing a CH or NH group, that is acidic
enough, may be activated versus electrophilic substrates by direct
cathodic reduction or by deprotonation via electrogenerated bases.
Many target compounds, such as oxazolidin-2-ones, carbamates, 5-
Effect of various electrodes on the electrocarboxylation of benzylideneaniline with
a
CO2
Entry
Electrode
Conversionb (%)
Yield 1bc (%)
h
d (%)
1
2
3
4
5
6
Ag
Pt
Cu
31
34
40
43
69
70
25
32
37
41
66
68
12.5
16
18.5
20.5
33
Stainless steel
Zn
Ni
methylene-1,3-oxazolidin-2-ones, and
b-lactams were conve-
34
niently synthesized via the use of the EGBs.41e44 In this context, we
have considerably concerned about the green synthetic method. In
our previous work, an efficient electrochemical method has been
developed for the electrocarboxylation of unsaturated hydrocar-
bons and CO2 with Ni as the cathode without additional catalysts, in
which Ni exhibits good catalytic activation.18,19,45,46 Moreover, we
a
Experimental conditions: benzylideneaniline (2 mmol), DMF (35 mL), CO2
4 MPa, room temperature, n-Bu4NBr (2.5 mmol), electricity (4 F molꢀ1), current
density 10 mA cmꢀ2, Al as sacrificial anode.
b
Conversion was calculated on starting benzylideneaniline.
Isolated yield based on benzylideneaniline.
c
d
h¼Q1/Q2
(h: current efficiency; Q1: quantity of electricity consumed in forming
product; Q2: total electricity quantity in the electrolysis).
also successfully applied the EGBs to synthesize the
a-alkylidene
cyclic carbonates47 and heterocyclic compounds.48
In this work, we attempted to explore the possibility of the one-
step synthesis of N-substituted amino acids from imines and car-
bon dioxide. The idea originated from the previous work.18,19,45e48
In the experiments, a phenomenon was always observed when the
sufficient charges were employed to electrolyze tetrabutylammo-
nium bromide (TBAB)/DMF solution. The electrolyte was found to
slowly become a brown solution. The hypobromous acid in the
electrolyzed solution was detected by UV spectrometry at
330 nm.49 The formation of the hypobromous acid was further
confirmed by using the potential sweep and rotating ring-disc
electrode methods. The reason is that bromide ions undergo
respectively. In comparison, Ni was a more effective cathode for the
formation of 1b, conversely, Ag was the worst one (Table 1, entries 1
and 6). The difference may be related to the nature of cathode
materials.52 One reason for various cathode materials has different
ability on the adsorption of substrates, which could affect the
subsequent electrochemical and chemical processes. In the case of
Ag as cathode, it exhibited pronounced specific absorption toward
imines, which could produce the complex compounds on the
electrode surface and cause the potential shifts to a less cathodic
field for the reduction of imines.53 The specific adsorption could
provide an increase in the imines concentration on the electrode
surface and to accelerate the dimers formation rates, which de-
creased the yields of carboxylation product.37e40In our experi-
ments, the amount of dimers of starting imine formed with Ag as
cathode was much more than that of other cathode materials (the
dimers were confirmed by GC/MS analysis, m/z¼364).
a
two-step oxidation to hypobromous acid at the anode
(Brꢀþe/Brad, BradþH2O/HBrOþHþ).50,51 Considering that the
oxidation of amino acids by halogenating agents can afford the N-
haloamino acids, we tried to electrolyze benzylideneaniline and
CO2. Unexpectedly, the N-bromoamino acid was obtained rather
than the a-amino acid. In the same conditions, other derivatives
have similar property (Scheme 1). The experimental results show
that the electrochemical mechanism is apparently different from
that of the previous work.37e40 Finding the truth has the theoretical
and practical significance of the conversion and utilization of CO2.
To the best of our knowledge, such work has not been reported in
literatures.
2.2. Effect of other electrochemical parameters
When the electrolysis was carried out with Et4NBr to be dis-
solved in DMF as supporting electrolyte, product 1b was also ob-
tained (Table 2, entry 1). With KBr as conducting salt (instead of
a R4Nþ salt), product 1b was not formed (Table 2, entry 2). The
Table 2
Electrocarboxylation of benzylideneaniline influenced by various reaction
conditionsa
Entry
Conducting salt
Conversionb (%)
Yield 1bc (%)
h
d (%)
1
2
Et4NBr
KBr
58
0
53
0
26.5
0
10.5
22
34
35
9
11.5
33
3e
4f
5
n-Bu4NBr
n-Bu4NBr
n-Bu4NBr
n-Bu4NBr
n-Bu4NBr
n-Bu4NBr
n-Bu4NBr
n-Bu4NBr
27
48
70
71
26
25
68
57
21
44
68
70
18
23
66
54
6g
7h
8i
9j
10k
Scheme 1. Electrosynthesis of the N-bromoamino acids from imines and carbon
dioxide.
27
2. Results and discussion
a
Experimental conditions: benzylideneaniline (2 mmol), DMF (35 mL), CO2
4 MPa, room temperature, conducting salts (2.5 mmol), electricity (4 F molꢀ1),
current density 10 mA cmꢀ2, Ni cathode, and Al anode.
2.1. Effect of cathode materials
b
Conversion was calculated on starting benzylideneaniline.
Isolated yield based on benzylideneaniline.
Current efficiency.
Two Faradays per mol of benzylideneaniline supplied to the electrodes.
Three Faradays per mol of benzylideneaniline supplied to the electrodes.
Five Faradays per mol of benzylideneaniline supplied to the electrodes.
n-Bu4NBr (1 mmol).
CH3CN was used as solvent.
It is known that electrode materials, especially cathode mate-
rials, could strongly influence the experience of electro-
carboxylation reaction and resulted in different products.
Therefore, we firstly investigated the influence of cathode mate-
rials. Benzylideneaniline was selected as model molecule. The ob-
tained results were listed in Table 1. With Ag, Pt, Cu, stainless steel,
Zn, and Ni employed as the cathodes, N-bromoamino acid (1b) was
obtained in the yields of 25%, 32%, 37%, 41%, 66%, and 68%,
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
Carbon dioxide pressure was 5 MPa.
k
The electrolysis temperature was 10 ꢁC.