Electro-catalytic oxidative transformation of organic acids for carbon-heteroatom and sulfur-heteroatom bond formation.

Abstract

The electrolysis of organic acids has garnered increasing attention in recent years. In addition to the famous electrochemical decarboxylation known as Kolbe electrolysis, a number of other electrochemical processes have been recently established, allowing for the construction of carbon-heteroatom and sulfur-heteroatom bonds from organic acids. In this review, we survey recent advances in electrochemical C-X and S-X (X = N, O, S, Se) bond forming reactions from five classes of organic acids and their conjugate bases, namely carboxylic, thiocarboxylic, phosphoric, sulfinic and sulfonic acids.