Electrochemical Synthesis of Zinc(II) Phenoxides and their Coordination Compounds

Electrochemical oxidation of phenol, 4-aminophenol, 2-nitrophenol, 4-nitrophenol, 2,4- dinitrophenol, 2-hydroxybenzoic acid, 2-tert-butylphenol and 2-tert-butyl-4- methoxyphenol has been carried out at sacrificial zinc anode. The products of these reactions have been identified by elemental analysis and infrared spectral data and are found to be zinc(II) phenoxides. Though these compounds do not form coordination compounds on refluxing with 1,10-phenanthroline or 2,2'-bipyridyl, yet the coordination compounds of these phenoxides with these ligands have been synthesized electrochemically. Current efficiencies of these systems are quite high.