A Green and Safe Galvanostatic Method for the Synthesis of 4-Nitrocatechol in Aqueous Solution

The main objective of this work is to synthesize of 4-nitrocatechol via a facile electrochemical method in aqueous solution using a conventional carbon anode under mild conditions. To achieving this goal, the electrochemical oxidation of catechol has been studied in the presence of NaNO2 using different electrochemical techniques to determine the synthesis conditions. Our voltammetric data indicate that electrochemically generated o-benzoquinone participates in Michael addition reaction with nitrite ion and via an EC mechanism converts to the title product. This method provides a green and one-pot procedure for the synthesis of 4-nitrocatechol under mild conditions. (C) 2015 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.