Electrochemical Reduction of Acetonitrile to Gaseous C2 Products and Implications for Small Molecule Transformations
- 1Department of Chemistry
- 2University of British Columbia
Abstract
Acetonitrile (CH3CN) is a polar aprotic solvent that is widely used in electrochemistry due to its large dielectric constant, strong ability to solubilize numerous substrates and catalysts, and stability under a wide range of applied potentials. In the context of electrocatalysis, reaction rates and product selectivities can differ markedly in CH3CN relative to other solvents, but the possibility of solvent reduction remains poorly explored. Herein, we report that CH3CN is reduced electrochemically in the presence of organic acids to form ethylene, ethane, ethylamine and ammonia. To our knowledge, this study constitutes the first report of electrochemical acetonitrile reduction to ethylene and the first molecular system to generate ethane. These reactions are catalyzed by iron tetraphenylporphyrins but also occur on plain glassy carbon electrodes, highlighting the generality of this reduction to a variety of other catalyst systems. Isotopic labelling coupled with high‐resolution gas chromatography-mass spectrometry shows that CH3CN is the source of ethylene and ethane and offers insights into plausible mechanistic pathways. Because the observed hydrocarbons and amines are also desired products of CO2 or N2 reduction or C‒N coupling reactions, these observations motivate increased scrutiny as to the origin of unusual reduction products when electrocatalytic reactions are performed in CH3CN.
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BibTeX
@misc{farhat2026electrochemical,
title = {{Electrochemical Reduction of Acetonitrile to Gaseous C2 Products and Implications for Small Molecule Transformations}},
author = {Rida Farhat and Eva M. Nichols},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15010562/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15010562/v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Electrochemical Reduction of Acetonitrile to Gaseous C2 Products and Implications for Small Molecule Transformations
AU - Rida Farhat
AU - Eva M. Nichols
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/15
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15010562/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15010562/v1
AB - Acetonitrile (CH3CN) is a polar aprotic solvent that is widely used in electrochemistry due to its large dielectric constant, strong ability to solubilize numerous substrates and catalysts, and stability under a wide range of applied potentials. In the context of electrocatalysis, reaction rates and product selectivities can differ markedly in CH3CN relative to other solvents, but the possibility of solvent reduction remains poorly explored. Herein, we report that CH3CN is reduced electrochemically in the presence of organic acids to form ethylene, ethane, ethylamine and ammonia. To our knowledge, this study constitutes the first report of electrochemical acetonitrile reduction to ethylene and the first molecular system to generate ethane. These reactions are catalyzed by iron tetraphenylporphyrins but also occur on plain glassy carbon electrodes, highlighting the generality of this reduction to a variety of other catalyst systems. Isotopic labelling coupled with high‐resolution gas chromatography-mass spectrometry shows that CH3CN is the source of ethylene and ethane and offers insights into plausible mechanistic pathways. Because the observed hydrocarbons and amines are also desired products of CO2 or N2 reduction or C‒N coupling reactions, these observations motivate increased scrutiny as to the origin of unusual reduction products when electrocatalytic reactions are performed in CH3CN.
ER -