Enabling Electrochemical C-O and C-N Arylation Libraries using Alternating Polarity in Flow

Etherification and amination of aryl halide scaffolds are commonly used reactions in parallel medicinal chemistry to rapidly scan structure-activity relationships with abundant building blocks. Electrochemical methods for aryl etherification and amination demonstrate broad functional group tolerance and extended nucleophile scope compared to traditional methods. Nevertheless, there is a need for robust and scale-transferable workflows for electrochemical library synthesis. Herein we describe a platform for automated electrochemical synthesis of C-X arylation (X = NH, OH) libraries in flow. A comprehensive DOE identifies an optimal protocol which generates high yields across > 30 aryl halide scaffolds, diverse amines (including electron-deficient sulfonamides, sulfoximines, amides, and anilines) and alcohols (including serine residues within peptides). Reaction sequences are automated on commercially available equipment to generate libraries of anilines and aryl ethers. The unprecedented application of potentiostatic alternating polarity in flow is essential to avoid accumulating electrode passivation. Moreover, it enables reactions to be performed in air, without supporting electrolytes and with high reproducibility over consecutive runs. Our method represents a powerful means to rapidly generate nucleophile independent C-X arylation libraries using flow electrochemistry.