Selective Electrosynthetic Hydrocarboxylation of α,β-Unsaturated Esters with Carbon Dioxide.

The carboxylation of low value commodity chemicals to provide higher value carboxylic acids is of significant interest. Recently alternative routes to the traditional hydroformylation processes that used potentially toxic carbon monoxide and a transition metal catalyst have appeared. A significant challenge has been the selectivity observed for olefin carboxylation. Photochemical methods have shown a viable route towards the hydrocarboxylation of α,β-unsaturated alkenes but rely on the use of an excess sulfur or amine reagent. Herein we report our investigations of an electrochemical approach that is able to hydrocarboxylate a,bunsaturated alkenes with excellent regioselectivity and the ability to carboxylate hindered substrates to afford α-quaternary centre carboxylic acids. The reported process requires no chromatography and the products are purified by simple crystallisation from the reaction mixture after work up.