Highly Selective Electrochemical Synthesis of Urea Derivatives Initiated from Oxygen Reduction in Ionic Liquids

The development of more efficient and sustainable methods for synthesizing substituted urea compounds and directly utilizing CO2 has long been a major focus of synthetic organic chemistry as these compounds serve critical environmental and industrial roles. Herein, we report a green approach to forming the urea compounds directly from CO2 gas and primary amines, triggered by oxygen electroreduction in ionic liquids (ILs). These reactions were carried out under mild conditions, at very low potentials, and achieved high conversion rates. The fact that O2 gas was utilized as the sole catalyst in this electrochemical loop, without additional reagents, is a significant milestone for eco-friendly syntheses of C-N compounds and establishes an effective and green CO2 scavenging method.