Electrolytic Oxidation of Ketones in Ammoniacal Methanol in the Presence of Catalytic Amounts of KI

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/jo00126a027

The indirect electrooxidation of ketones in ammoniacal methanol using iodide ion as a mediator afforded 2,2-dialkyl-2,5-dihydro-1H-imidazoles 3 via an oxidative cyclocoupling of ketimine intermediates formed from ketones and ammonia.The treatment of 3 with dilute HCl gave α-amino ketone hydrochlorides 4 and the parent ketones in good yields.A similar electrooxidation of 3 resulted in the formation of the corresponding 2H-imidazoles 6, which were hydrolyzed to α-diketones and the parent ketones.The same products 6 could also conveniently be obtained by chemical oxidation of 3 with aqueous NaOCl.