Leaded Bronze: An Innovative Lead Substitute for Cathodic Electrosynthesis

The most common cathode materials for electro‐organic reduction reactions are lead, mercury, and cadmium, as they exhibit a large over‐potential for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Therefore, quite negative potentials can be reached, which are important for many electro‐organic conversions li...

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Published inChemElectroChem Vol. 5; no. 2; pp. 247 - 252
Main Authors Gütz, Christoph, Grimaudo, Valentine, Holtkamp, Michael, Hartmer, Marius, Werra, Janina, Frensemeier, Lisa, Kehl, Anton, Karst, Uwe, Broekmann, Peter, Waldvogel, Siegfried R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Weinheim John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.01.2018
Subjects
Cathodes
Cathodic corrosion
Chemical reduction
copper
Corrosion products
Deoxygenation
Electrode materials
electrosynthesis
Fine chemicals
Hydrogen evolution reactions
lead
leaded bronze alloys
Leaded bronzes
Mercury (metal)
Organometallic compounds
reduction
Synthesis
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Summary:The most common cathode materials for electro‐organic reduction reactions are lead, mercury, and cadmium, as they exhibit a large over‐potential for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Therefore, quite negative potentials can be reached, which are important for many electro‐organic conversions like dehalogenations, deoxygenations, and many more. As a major drawback, all three metals are prone to cathodic corrosion forming highly toxic organometallic compounds, which might contaminate the product. Thus, the synthesis of fine chemicals and biologically active agents through electro‐synthesis is highly challenging. To tackle this issue, we present leaded bronze as an innovative, easily available, and inexpensive cathode material, which combines an excellent performance in electrosynthesis with a significantly increased mechanical and chemical stability. Our results demonstrate that leaded bronze can effectively replace lead as an electrode material in a significant number of transformations. The bronze age: Significantly enhanced stability in electro‐organic reductions is found for leaded bronzes. The performance is comparable with pure lead and, in several cases, even superior. This makes leaded bronzes an attractive cathodic material for electrosynthetic applications.
ISSN:2196-0216
2196-0216
DOI:10.1002/celc.201701061