The direct synthetic organic use of electricity is currently experiencing a renaissance. More synthetically oriented laboratories working in this area are exploiting both novel and more traditional concepts, paving the way to broader applications of this niche technology. As only electrons serve as reagents, the generation of reagent waste is efficiently avoided. Moreover, stoichiometric reagents can be regenerated and allow a transformation to be conducted in an electrocatalytic fashion. However, the application of electroorganic transformations is more than minimizing the waste footprint, it rather gives rise to inherently safe processes, reduces the number of steps of many syntheses, allows for milder reaction conditions, provides alternative means to access desired structural entities, and creates intellectual property (IP) space. When the electricity originates from renewable resources, this surplus might be directly employed as a terminal oxidizing or reducing agent, providing an ultra‐sustainable and therefore highly attractive technique. This Review surveys recent developments in electrochemical synthesis that will influence the future of this area.

The use of electricity instead of stoichiometric amounts of oxidizers or reducing agents in synthesis is very appealing for economic and ecological reasons, and represents a major driving force for research efforts in this area. To use electron transfer at the electrode for a successful transformation in organic synthesis, the intermediate radical (cation/anion) has to be stabilized. Its combination with other approaches in organic chemistry or concepts of contemporary synthesis allows the establishment of powerful synthetic methods. The aim in the 21st Century will be to use as little fossil carbon as possible and, for this reason, the use of renewable sources is becoming increasingly important. The direct conversion of renewables, which have previously mainly been incinerated, is of increasing interest. This Review surveys many of the recent seminal important developments which will determine the future of this dynamic emerging field.

Solvents such as 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) with a high capacity for donating hydrogen bonds generate solvates that enter into selective cross-coupling reactions of aryls upon oxidation. When electric current is employed for oxidation, reagent effects can be excluded and a decoupling of nucleophilicity from oxidation potential can be achieved. The addition of water or methanol to the electrolyte allows a shift of oxidation potentials in a specific range, creating suitable systems for selective anodic cross-coupling reactions. The shift in the redox potentials depends on the substitution pattern of the substrate employed. The concept has been expanded from arene-phenol to phenol-phenol as well as phenol-aniline cross-coupling. This driving force for selectivity in oxidative coupling might also explain previous findings using HFIP and hypervalent iodine reagents.