Electrosynthesis

In electrochemistry, electrosynthesis is the synthesis of chemical compounds in an electrochemical cell. Compared to ordinary redox reactions, electrosynthesis sometimes offers improved selectivity and yields. Electrosynthesis is actively studied as a science and also has industrial applications. Electrooxidation has potential for wastewater treatment as well. Experimental setup The basic setup in electrosynthesis is a galvanic cell, a potentiostat and two electrodes. Typical solvent and electrolyte combinations minimizes electrical resistance. Protic conditions often use alcohol-water or dioxane-water solvent mixtures with an electrolyte such as a soluble salt, acid or base. Aprotic conditions often use an organic solvent such as acetonitrile or dichloromethane with electrolytes such as lithium perchlorate or tetrabutylammonium salts. The choice of electrodes with respect to their composition and surface area can be decisive. For example, in aqueous conditions the competin

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Influence of the supporting electrolyte on the anodic methoxylation of P-tert-butyltoluene (TBT)

Hedi Drissi

EPFL2007

Tailored extracellular electron transfer pathways enhance the electroactivity of Escherichia coli

Ardemis Anoush Boghossian, Lin Li, Mohammed Mouhib, Melania Reggente, Nils Schürgers

Extracellular electron transfer (EET) engineering in Escherichia coli holds great potential for bioremediation, energy and electrosynthesis applications fueled by readily available organic substrates. Due to its vast metabolic capabilities and availability of synthetic biology tools to adapt strains to specific applications, E. coli is of advantage over native exoelectrogens, but limited in electron transfer rates. We enhanced EET in engineered strains through systematic expression of electron transfer pathways differing in cytochrome composition, localization and origin. While a hybrid pathway harboring components of an E. coli nitrate reductase and the Mtr complex from the exoelectrogen Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 enhanced EET, the highest efficiency was achieved by implementing the complete Mtr pathway from S. oneidensis MR1 in E. coli. We show periplasmic electron shuttling through overexpression of a small tetraheme cytochrome to be central to the electroactivity of this strain, leading to enhanced degradation of the pollutant methyl orange and significantly increased electrical current to graphite electrodes.

2021

Evaluation of boron doped diamond electrodes for organic electrosynthesis on a preparative scale

Christos Comninellis

We have investigated some anodic and cathodic transformations using boron doped diamond (BDD) electrodes. The oxidn. of a propargylic alc. as well as the arom. side chain oxidn. in water as electrolyte did not yield the desired products in high yield and selectivity and led mainly to the formation of CO2 due to electrochem. incineration of the starting material. With methanol as electrolyte, however, the reactivity of BDD electrodes is similar to graphite in most anodic methoxylation reactions, but the inactive behavior of BDD electrodes leads to a different reaction pathway possibly involving methoxyl radicals with charge transfer from the electrolyte. It has been found that at BDD anodes benzylic single and double bonds can be split yielding arom. acetals and esters. With phenanthrenes as starting material, o,o'-disubstituted biaryls were obtained. So the use of BDD electrodes provides an efficient and environmentally friendly access to this interesting class of compds. The high H2 overpotential of BDD cathodes enables smooth and selective redn. of functional groups like oximes. Due to the high chem. and mech. stability of the diamond layer of today's electrodes, electrode lifetime as well as reproducibility of the electrosyntheses has improved markedly. Aq. basic conditions, however, must be avoided for BDD anodes. These conditions result in degrdn. of the diamond surface. [on SciFinder (R)]

2005

Organic redox reaction

Organic reductions or organic oxidations or organic redox reactions are redox reactions that take place with organic compounds. In organic chemistry oxidations and reductions are different from ordin

Hydrogenation

Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen (H2) and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel, palladium or platinum. The process is comm

Redox

Redox (ˈrɛdɒks , ˈriːdɒks , reduction–oxidation or oxidation–reduction) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an i

ChE-407: Electrochemical engineering

This course builds upon the underlying theory in thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, and transport and applies these methods to electrosynthesis, fuel cell, and battery applications. Special focus is placed on addressing current challenges in state-of-the-art energy storage and conversion devices.

ME-469: Nano-scale heat transfer

In this course we study heat transfer (and energy conversion) from a microscopic perspective. This allows us to understand why classical laws (i.e. Fourier Law) are what they are and what are their limits of validity . We will then discuss emerging opprotunities in nanoscale devices.