Electrosynthetic routes toward carbon dioxide activation and utilization

The development of electrochemical methods for the carboxylation of a variety of substrates to form new C–CO2 bonds has been an area of interest for a number of years and is a powerful way to construct such a bond, often negating the use of water sensitive/pyrophoric reagents (e.g. metal halogen exchange with alkyl lithium compounds). In this review we will examine the breadth of carboxylation reactions available and the type of electrosynthetic cell and catalyst required to carry out the transformation. Traditionally many of these reactions were carried out using sacrificial magnesium/aluminum or zinc anodes, but recent developments have enabled the circumvention of these non-sustainable approaches and have opened the door toward further development of continuous flow processes. These developments have run alongside the increased availability of standardized batch and flow electrochemical systems now available to the synthetic chemist. Competition between the areas of photocatalysis and electrocatalysis through comparative reactivity of single electron transfer processes has driven many of the new innovations in this exciting area of research.