The nitration of o-dihydroxybenzene(catechol) at a Glassy carbon electrode in aqueous solution in the presence of excess NaNO2 has been studied in detail.1-2 First, the electrochemical behavior of the reactants, catechol and NaNO2 was investigated by cyclic voltammetry to determine the electrolysis conditions. When both substrates are in the solution, two well-defined peaks are observed which correspond to the oxidation of catechol and 4-nitrocatechol (Scheme 1). The results indicate the participation of produced obenzoquinone in Michael reaction with nitrite ion to form the corresponding 4-nitrocatechol (EC mechanism). In this paper, electrolysis methods were used to synthesis 4-nitrocatechol. The effects of parametric values, such as current density, concentration of starting precursor, pH solution were examined. Its FT-IR, UV-VIS spectra and cyclic voltammetry are quite similar to those of 4-nitrocatechole obtained by chemical methods.
