Desulfonylative Electrocarboxylation with Carbon Dioxide

Electrocarboxylation of organic halides is one of the most investigated electrochemical approaches for converting thermodynamically inert carbon dioxide (CO2) into value-added carboxylic acids. By converting organic halides into their sulfone derivatives, we have developed a highly efficient electrochemical desulfonylative carboxylation protocol. Such a strategy takes advantage of CO2 as the abundant C1 building block for the facile preparation of multifunctionalized carboxylic acids, including the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen, under mild reaction conditions.