# Alternating Current Electrolysis for Organic Synthesis

> **NIH NIH R35** · WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $11,284

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 With growing concerns regarding the environment and sustainability, there is an increasing
demand for integrating green chemistry and green engineering into the pharmaceutical industry.
Electrochemical organic synthesis represents a green and advantageous alternative to traditional
synthetic methods because it directly uses electrons from a power source to complete the redox
transformations, which can cut down on the usage of chemicals, reduce waste, and offer
improvements in cost, safety, and sustainability. However, the current reaction library of
electrosynthetic methods is limited. Therefore, there is a critical need for new electrolytic methods
that offer new chemical reactivities.
 The proposal is focused on studying the mostly unexplored alternating current electrolysis for
organic synthesis. Unlike the conventional electroorganic synthetic methods using a constant
voltage or current, alternating current electrolysis uses an alternating voltage to drive the redox
transformations of substrates. Alternating current electrolysis offers a unique reaction
environment where two redox-opposite reactions can occur spatially and temporally close to each
other and can be easily adjustable by merely controlling the alternating current voltage supply.
The overall goal of this proposal is to exploit this unique reaction environment of alternating
current electrolysis to achieve new reactivities that are not currently accessible by the existing
synthetic methodologies, serving as a critical step towards the long-term vision of the electrically
driven green synthesis of drugs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10837784
- **Project number:** 5R35GM142590-04
- **Recipient organization:** WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Long Luo
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $11,284
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-07-01 → 2025-01-09

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10837784

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10837784, Alternating Current Electrolysis for Organic Synthesis (5R35GM142590-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10837784. Licensed CC0.

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