A charged approach to forming C–N bonds

Organic Chemistry Adjacent carbon-nitrogen bonds often appear in chemical compounds of pharmaceutical interest. Fu et al. developed a versatile method to form these bonds by pairing manganese catalysis with electrochemical azide oxidation in the presence of olefins. A major advantage of the electrochemical approach is the tunable precision of its oxidizing power, which leaves other sensitive substituents such as alcohols and aldehydes intact. The reaction proceeded over several hours at room temperature, forming hydrogen at the counter electrode as a benign by-product. Science , this issue p. [575][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aan6206