Manganese-Promoted Electrochemical Imino-Pinacol Coupling to Access Vicinal Diamines

We herein introduce an electrochemical imino-pinacol coupling reaction to access the vicinal diamine scaffold. This green and convenient protocol employs in situ-generated imines as starting materials to deliver a broad range of diamine products under electroreductive conditions. Moreover, this protocol is also applicable to electrochemical pinacol coupling. Mechanistic investigation suggests that a Mn(III) additive is essential for promoting the SET reduction of the imine starting material and preventing the formation of the over-reduced amine side product.