Strom, das saubere Reagenz: Kompetenzzentrum Elektrochemie an der FHBB

Electricity, the Clean Reagent: Electrochemistry at FHBB

Abstract

Despite of its advantages, electrochemistry has almost disappeared from organic synthesis. Since we promote environmentally clean technologies, we started to investigate electro-organic reactions, such as the Kolbe reaction. One of our Kolbe products is an attractive chiral building block, in which Fluka is interested. In collaboration with Schering-Plough, we found an interesting electrochemical reduction procedure for an imine in water as solvent. The traditional catalytic reduction is carried out in expensive and aggressive solvents which are not easy to handle.Since regulations regarding waste water and exhaust air in chemical processes are becoming increasingly rigorous, electro-organic chemistry would be a sustainable non-polluting complement to classical chemistry. Therefore, we intend to enhance our knowledge in electrochemical synthesis.