Electrochemical Fe-catalyzed deoxygenative alkoxycarbonylation of imidazoheterocycles with carbazates

Imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine derivatives possess widespread applications in the pharmaceutical industry and bioactive natural products. The diverse functionalization of this skeleton has attracted much attention from chemists. Herein, we reported an electrochemical deoxygenative alkoxycarbonylation of imidazoheterocycles by using electrons as the traceless oxidant under mild and oxidant-free conditions. Notably, our strategy provided a green and practical approach for introducing ester group into imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine derivatives by employing easily available and bench-stable carbazates as ester source.