An Electrochemical Oxidative Two-Fold C─C Bond Formation of Indolizines With Xanthenes.

An efficient and mild electrochemical strategy for the direct dehydrogenative C─C coupling of indolizines and xanthenes is developed. A series of novel indolizine derivatives have been obtained in yields of up to 85% without transition metal catalysts or oxidants. The procedure is operationally convenient, and the products are isolated without a chromatography-purification process. Moreover, the excellent performance in a gram-scale reaction highlights promising potential for scale-up. The sustainability of this approach has been assessed using green metrics. Based on electrochemical studies and control experiments, a plausible radical mechanism is proposed.