Electrocatalytic Hydrogenation and Reductive Coupling of Aryl Ketones: Highly efficient Straightforward Metal-Free Access to Alcohols and Pinacols

An electrocatalytic pathway is disclosed for the hydrogenation and reductive pinacol coupling of aryl ketones. The operationally simple protocol neither requires an external catalyst nor any sacrificial anode and proceeds efficiently under the aerobic condition at an ambient temperature and pressure. Under the optimized condition, diaryl ketones transform completely to the corresponding diarylmethanols whereas aryl ketones undergo reductive pinacol coupling leading to the respective 1,2-diol compounds in good to excellent yields. The protocol showed a high degree of substrate compatibility with moderate to very good diastereoselectivity depending on the substrates. The scope of the developed method was also extended to the different bioactive molecules opening up the possibility for their late-stage synthetic modification.