Electrochemical synthesis of sulfonamide derivatives based on the oxidation of 2,5-diethoxy-4-morpholinoaniline in the presence of arylsulfinic acids.

Some new sulfonamide derivatives were synthesized in aqueous solutions via anodic oxidation of 2,5-diethoxy-4-morpholinoaniline in the presence of arylsulfinic acids using a commercial carbon anode. In addition, the formation mechanism of the products was discussed. The obtained data show that the electrogenerated quinone diimine undergoes a Michael-type addition reaction with arylsulfinic acids to yield the respective sulfonamide derivatives. In this work, two different types of products (mono- and disulfone derivatives) in the same precursor could be isolated just by controlling the exerted potentials.