Metal-Free Dehomologative Oxidation of Arylacetic Acids for the Synthesis of Aryl Carboxylic Acids

A novel I2-promoted direct conversion of arylacetic acids into aryl carboxylic acids under metal-free conditions has been described. This remarkable transformation involves decarboxylation followed by an oxidation reaction enabled just by using DMSO as the solvent as well as an oxidant. Notably, aryl carboxylic acids are isolated by simple filtration technique and obtained in good to excellent yields. This protocol is free from chromatographic purification, which makes it applicable for large-scale synthesis.