Synthesis of Primary and Secondary Amines via Electrochemical Reduction of Hydrazines

We herein introduce an electrochemical route for the N-N bond cleavage of hydrazines. This mild and green methodology utilized readily available mono- and 1,1-disubstituted hydrazines or their HCl salts as starting materials to access a broad scope of primary and secondary amines in high yields. The mechanistic investigation suggests that the amine product is formed by consecutive SET reduction, and utilization of a hydrazine HCl salt is important for providing sufficient conductivity and acidity to facilitate this reaction.