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.