Supporting-Electrolyte-Free and Scalable Flow Process for the Electrochemical Synthesis of 3,3′,5,5′-Tetramethyl-2,2′-biphenol

Abstract

The most efficient electrochemical synthesis of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethyl-2,2′-biphenol by dehydrogenative coupling is reported. The electrolysis is performed supporting-electrolyte-free in 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropanol and at carbon electrodes, whereby glassy carbon electrodes turned out to be superior. To provide sufficient conductivity, pyridine is added, and it can easily be recovered by evaporation and reused. This facilitates the downstream process tremendously, making it simple, economical, and technically viable. The scalability was proven by establishing a flow electrolysis in differently sized narrow-gap flow electrolyzers. Carrying out a multistep cascade electrolysis enabled the challenging hydrogen evolution to be successfully addressed. The scaled-up electrolysis provided an isolated yield of 59% biphenol.