Photoinduced Ligand-to-Metal Charge Transfer of Carboxylates: Decarboxylative Functionalizations, Lactonizations, and Rearrangements

Abstract

In the quest for sustainable processes, the selection of resources and catalysts is of central importance. Carboxylic acids, which are abundant, stable and ideally biobased feedstocks, can be considered as attractive platforms towards a range of functionalized molecules. A recent resurgence of photoinduced ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) of carboxylates led to tremendous developments in the field of earth-abundant metal mediated, visible-light induced (non)-decarboxylative transformations of carboxylic acids. These reactions combine the use of available starting materials, low-consuming energy source and abundant catalysts. Besides these undeniable advantages, they also provide mild, highly selective and innovative conditions towards complex molecule functionalization. The objective of this review is to give an overview of the recent advances in LMCT of carboxylates with a special focus on mechanistic aspects of these transformations. (Figure presented.).