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Natural sciences
- Electrochemical methods
- Free radical chemistry
- Catalysis
- Organic green chemistry
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Engineering and technology
- Materials synthesis
The common synthetic chemistry approaches to obtain value-added organic products and functionalities are of great industrial relevance. However, to date, mostly traditional thermal reactions involving harsh conditions, complex metal-based catalysts, and a large bulk of solvents are practised resulting in substantial catalytic and energy waste with an impending financial burden on the end-users. Electrification of the industrial synthetic processes is a great yet relatively unbeaten way to produce organic compounds in green sustainable and mild conditions while reducing waste formation. In this project, a generic electrocatalytic setup consisting of covalent organic framework (COF) electrodes are reported for synthesizing important organic functionalities and industrially relevant compounds. COFs consisting of super oxidizing and reducing moieties (VB and CB ca. +3.0 and ca. -3.0 V vs SCE respectively) will be used as electrodes. Such a large working potential window will allow the oxidation and reduction of even the extremely ‘unactivated organic molecules (e.g. aliphatic units, stable aromatics, etc.), opening a truly wide substrate scope for the catalyses. Using this setup, various organic compounds will be prepared (photo)electrocatalytically following metal-free ‘Oxidative’, ‘Reductive’ and ‘Net-Redox’ coupling pathways. A variety of catalysis will be performed and corresponding mechanisms will be duly assessed to ascertain the process for ready real-life applications.