Electric‐Field‐Induced Organic Transformations

Experiments showed that the existence of electric fields in non‐redox processes may alter the catalytic activity, rate enhancement, and selection of organic reactions. It is expected that the interaction between electric fields and chemical reactions will create new avenues for producing materials with desired properties in several chemical disciplines, including synthetic organic chemistry, catalysis, nanotechnology, membrane technology, and enzyme catalysis. Specifically, in this review, we discuss the elegant experimental investigations carried out using the scanning tunneling microscope, the interfacial electric field, and designed local electric fields. The results of these studies are remarkable, leading to new information on the function of electric fields in controlling chemical reactivity and selectivity in different reactions and offering a glimpse of the great potential of electrostatic fields. This article not only presents the core concepts of field‐induced chemical transformations but also illustrates the potential use of electric field catalysis in chemistry and other fields. This review describes the evolution of experimental studies on electric field‐induced chemical transformation over the past fifteen years. In particular, it explains how chemical processes involving the bond formation and bond cleavage can be triggered by a scanning tunneling microscope, an interfacial electric field, and a designed local electric field at both the nanoscale and bulk scale. These are unique and distinct techniques that can provide excellent and advanced methods in synthetic chemistry.