Carboxylic acids or their corresponding esters are ubiquitous in organic chemistry. Leveraging this accessibility is vital for decarboxylative functionalisation, which enables the transformation of these readily available starting materials into a wide variety of valuable products. This strategy allows for the introduction of diverse functional groups, often under mild conditions, and can simplify synthetic routes by avoiding the need for pre-functionalised substrates. Decarboxylative functionalisation also facilitates the construction of complex molecules and natural products, contributing significantly to advancements in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and material science.
Transition-metal-free decarboxylative bromination of aromatic carboxylic acids Jacob M. Quibell, Gregory J. P. Perry, Diego M. Cannas, Igor Larrosa* Chemical Science, 2018
Silver-catalyzed protodecarboxylation of heteroaromatic carboxylic acids Pengfei Lu, Carolina Sanchez, Josep Cornella, Igor Larrosa* Organic Letters 2009
For an introduction to decarboxylative arylation see:Recent Progress in Decarboxylative Oxidative CrossâCoupling for Biaryl Synthesis Gregory J. P. Perry, Igor Larrosa* European Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2017