Advances in Electrochemical Decarboxylative Transformation Reactions

Owing to their non‐toxic, stable, inexpensive properties, carboxylic acids are considered as environmentally benign alternatives as coupling partners in various organic transformations. Electrochemical mediated decarboxylation of carboxylic acid has emerged as a new and efficient methodology for the construction of carbon‐carbon or carbon‐heteroatom bonds. Compared with transition‐metal catalysis and photoredox catalysis, electro‐organic decarboxylative transformations are considered as a green and sustainable protocol due to the absence of chemical oxidants and strong bases. Further, it exhibits good tolerance with various functional groups. In this Minireview, we summarize the recent advances and discoveries on the electrochemical decarboxylative transformations on C−C and C−heteroatoms bond formations. Electrochemical decarboxylation of carboxylic acids has become a significant method in electro‐organic synthesis which allows a one‐step carbon‐carbon bond formation as well as other heteroatom bond formation such as C−N, C−O, C−S, C−halogen under mild conditions. This Minireview discusses the current progress in electrochemical decarboxylation reactions and gives a detailed overview of useful organic transformations of various carboxylic acids with excellent functional group tolerance.