Green synthesis via electrolysis in microemulsions*
James F. Rusling
Department of Chemistry, Box U-60, University of Connecticut,
Storrs, CT 06269-3060, USA
Abstract: Electrolysis in microemulsions is a promising approach
for environmentally friendly chemical synthetic methods of the future.
Employing microemulsions instead of organic solvents for electrosynthesis
has the advantages of lower toxicity and cost, high dissolving power
for reactants and mediators of unlike solubility, enhancement of reaction
rates by controlling the reduction potentials of mediators, possible
reaction pathway control, and recycling of microemulsion components.
This paper reviews recent progress in using microemulsions for direct
and mediated electrosynthesis, including formation of carboncarbon
bonds. Rates of mediated reactions can be controlled by manipulating
microemulsion composition. Examples are presented, in which reaction
pathways of direct and mediated electrolyses can be controlled with
microemulsions to give desired products in high yields. Such control
has been demonstrated with dissolved and surface-bound mediators. For
a covalently linked scaffold of poly(l-lysine) and cobalt corrin vitamin
B12 hexacarboxylate attached to graphite, catalytic turnover rate for
reduction of 1,2-dibromocylcohexane was optimized by optimizing microemulsion
composition.
* An issue of reviews and research papers based on
presentations made at the IUPAC/ICSU Workshop on
Electrochemistry and Interfacial Chemistry in Environmental Clean-up
and Green Chemical Processes, Coimbra, Portugal, 6-7 April, 2001.
** Corresponding author.
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