A synthesis of β-ketosulfones via sulfination of aryl methyl ketones and aryl acetylenes with sodium sulfinates under mild electrochemical conditions, in moderate to good chemical yields, is described. In particular, an electrochemical sulfination reaction of alkynes with sulfinate salts has never been explored. An environmentally friendly characteristic of this reaction is that it uses electricity as a valuable energy source for electrochemical synthesis of β-ketosulfones. This strategy is more convenient and practical compared to previous approaches.

tert-Amines were harnessed to afford arenesulfonyl hydrazides and arenesulfonyl chloridesviaa metal-, oxidant- and halogen-free electrochemical oxidative coupling in an undivided cell at RT.

Cyclobutane scaffolds are incorporated in several valuable natural and bioactive products. However, non-photochemical ways to synthesize cyclobutanes have scarcely been investigated. Herein, based on the principles of the electrosynthesis technique, we introduce a novel electrochemical approach for attaining cyclobutanes by a simple [2 + 2] cycloaddition of two electron-deficient olefins in the absence of photocatalysts or metal catalysts. This electrochemical strategy provides a suitable condition for synthesizing tetrasubstituted cyclobutanes with a variety of functional groups in good to excellent efficiency, compatible with gram-scale synthesis. In contrast to previous challenging methods, this approach strongly focuses on the convenient accessibility of the reaction instruments and starting materials for preparing cyclobutanes. Readily accessible and inexpensive electrode materials are firm evidence to prove the simplicity of this reaction. In addition, mechanistic insight into the reaction is obtained by investigation of the CV spectra of the reactants. Also, the structure of a product is identified by X-ray crystallography.