Cu(I)‐Catalyzed Carboxylation of Aryl Boronic Acid with CO2

An efficient method for the carboxylation of CO2 with aryl boronic acid compounds under normal pressure has been developed. This method uses cheap Cu(I) as a catalyst and exhibits a good functional group tolerance. All substrates substituted by both electron‐withdrawing functional groups (carbonyl, ester, nitro, etc.) and electron‐donating groups (alkoxy, amide, phenyl, etc.) could give corresponding products in the satisfying yields. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the main greenhouse gases. The realization of the chemical conversion of CO2 was significantly for green chemistry and sustainable development of economy. This work presented the reaction of arylboronic acids with CO2 to achieve the formation of aryl carboxylic acids by using the inexpensive CuCl as a catalyst, 1,10‐phenanthroline as the ligand, CH3OK as the base and DMSO as the solvent. It was found that the system is of a wide tolerance of functional groups and the substrates bearing both electron‐withdrawing and electron‐donating groups could give corresponding carboxylic acids in the moderate to good yields.