Rational Design of Alternating Current Electrolysis for Selective Organic Synthesis

The electroorganic synthesis community is showing a strong interest in Alternating Current (AC) electrolysis. AC electrolysis is a process where the flow of charge periodically changes direction. It has been observed that AC electrolysis can exhibit a tunable product selectivity based on AC frequency. However, the mechanism behind the reaction selectivity is still unclear. Due to the lack of understanding, discovering the optimal AC electrolysis conditions could take a few days per substrate through a trial-and-error process. In this talk, I will present how electroanalytical methods can guide the rational design of AC electrolysis conditions for selective organic synthesis. This approach significantly shortens the reaction optimization time to a few minutes.