A New Entry to Sonochemical/Efficient Agitation Switching: Alkene Formation through Epoxide Deoxygenation

‘Sonochemical switching’ whereby the pathway of a reaction is changed under sonication conditions was first reported by Ando, and in fact could just be the consequence of efficient agitation. We herein report a new addition to this switching phenomenon in which epoxides are converted to cyclic carbonates by addition of CO₂ under standard heating/electrolysis conditions but are ‘switched’ to alkenes under deoxygenating sonochemical conditions.