Anodic Electrosynthesis of Amide from Alcohol and Ammonia

Amide is essential in biologically active compounds,synthetic materials,and building blocks.However,conventional amide production relies on energyintensive consumption and activating agents that modulate processes to construct the C–N bond.Herein,for the first time,we have successfully realized the formation of amides at industrial current density via the anodic coelectrolysis of alcohol and ammonia under ambient conditions.We have proved thatmodulation of the interface microenvironment concentration of nucleophile by electrolyte engineering can regulate the reaction pathways of amides rather than acetic acids.The C-N coupling strategy can be further extended to the electrosynthesis of the long-chain and aryl-ring amide with high selectivity by replacing ammonia with amine.Our work opens up a vast store of information on the utilization of biomass alcohol for high-value N-containing chemicals via an electrocatalytic C-N coupling reaction.