Recent advances in electrochemical carboxylation reactions using carbon dioxide

From the viewpoint of abundance, economy, non-toxicity, and renewability, CO2 is the ideal C1 synthon in organic synthetic chemistry. Utilizing CO2 for chemical conversion to synthesize highly value-added fine chemicals is of great significance. Organic electrochemical synthesis that employs electrons as redox reagents to achieve selective oxidation or reduction has attracted much attention in the past decades. In this review, recent advances in the electrochemical carboxylations using CO2 from the perspective of organic synthesis will be summarized. We give an overview about the research progress of electrocarboxylation reactions according to the classification of substrates, such as alkenes, organic (pseudo)halides, aldehydes, ketones, and imines. The carbanions produced by cathodic reduction are important intermediates in the electrocarboxylation reactions using CO2.