Electrophilic components in the electrochemical acetoxylation of substituted arenes

The mechanism of anodic acetoxylation of substituted arenes under conditions of undivided galvanostatic electrolysis in MeCN containing acetate is suggested and an important role of electrophilic components (AcOH or ZnCl₂) catalyzing transformation of intermediate ipso-acetoxylated polysubstituted arenonium cations to corresponding ortho-acetoxylated arenonium cations, which give acetoxylation products after deprotonation, is experimentally proved.