Electrochemical formal homocoupling of -alcohols.

Electrochemical pinacol coupling of carbonyl compounds in an undivided cell with a sacrificial anode would be a promising approach toward synthetically valuable -1,2-diol scaffolds without using low-valent metal reductants. However, sacrificial anodes produce an equimolar amount of metal waste, which may be a major issue in terms of sustainable chemistry. Herein, we report a sacrificial anode-free electrochemical protocol for the synthesis of pinacol-type -1,2-diols from -alcohols, namely benzyl alcohol derivatives and ethyl lactate.