Recent advances in iodine mediated electrochemical oxidative cross-coupling.

Electrochemical oxidative cross-coupling with hydrogen evolution has become an environmentally friendly and efficient way to form new bonds. Direct electrosynthesis by anodic oxidation has been developed for the synthesis of complex molecules. However, in some cases, redox catalysts were needed to avoid over-oxidation and to achieve better reaction selectivity. Recently, the use of iodine as a mediator to achieve indirect electrochemical reactions has drawn increasing attention. This review article gives an overview of the recent development of iodine mediated electrochemical oxidative coupling reactions.