A nickel-iron layered double hydroxide-supported Au catalyst for efficient electrocatalytic C-C coupling reaction coupled with H2 production

Coupling of cathodic H-2 production with electrosynthesis of organic compounds not only solves the problem of sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics, but also produces valuable chemicals. However, this strategy has rarely been explored for direct and selective C(sp(3))-H activation to construct C-C bonds, which could significantly enhance the synthetic efficiency in organic synthesis. Here, we report a nickel-iron layered double hydroxide-supported gold catalyst (Au/NiFe-LDH) for efficient electrocatalytic C-C coupling reaction in direct C(sp(3))-H alkynylation of tertiary aliphatic amines with 1-iodoalkynes, which is coupled with H-2 production. Specifically, triethylamine and 1-iodoalkynes undergo efficient alkynylation to afford propargylamine in high yield (79%) and recycling ability without addition of external oxidants, coupling with 78-fold higher H-2 productivity compared with water splitting under the same potential. This work may shed light on OER-substituted reaction towards C-C bond formation reactions under mild conditions.