Carbon dioxide radical reduction with

Triorganyl-sulfonium, -selenonium and -telluronium salts are reduced by carbon dioxide radical anions/solvated electrons produced in aqueous solution by radiolysis. The radical expulsion accompanying reduction occurred with the expected leaving group propensities, i.e. benzyl > secondary alkyl > primary alkyl > methyl > phenyl. Much higher product yields in the reduction of selenonium and telluronium compounds have been accounted for in terms of a chain reaction with carbon-centred radicals, with formate serving as the chain transfer agent.282... 

Early workers [103] detected benzilic acid formed during the reduction of benzophenone in dimethylformamide in the presence of carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide radical anion system is known to have E" = —2.2V (vs. SCE) [104] and will thus not be formed in preference to the ketone radical anion. Reaction occurs through trapping of aromatic carbonyl radical anions by carbon dioxide, and this has been developed into a convenient synthesis of aryllactic acids. The modern technological process uses constant current conditions. On a small scale, a divided cell with mercury cathode has been used to obtain benzilic acids from substituted benzophenones and carbon dioxide in 70-90% yields [105] and to convert 4-isopropylacetophenone to the corresponding phenyllactic acid in 85% yield [106]. On a technical scale, these reactions are best carried out in an undivided cell using a lead cathode and a sacrificial aluminum anode with dimethylformamide as solvent... 

Although a radical mechanism has been proposed,10 more recently a rate-limiting C-H bond cleavage step has been invoked,11 and it is generally accepted that the formic acid acts as a hydride donor.9 This is consistent with the observation of production of carbon dioxide and reduction product in equivalent quantities.10... 

A v ety of reactions are catalyzed by electrochemically generated Ni(0) (62). Electrochemical reduction of Ni(bipy)3Br2 affords a reagent that couples acid chlorides and alkyl or aryl halides to form unsymmetrical ketones (63). Symmetrical ketones are formed from alkyl halides and carbon dioxide (64). Reductive electrochemical carboxylation of terminal alkynes, enynes and diynes can be accomplished with 10% Ni(bipy)3(Bp4)2 in DMF (65-68). Terminal allies lead selectively to a-substituted acrylic acids. Electrocatalytic hydrogenation on hydrogen-active electrodes has been reviewed (69). Radical cyclizations of vinyl, alkyl and aryl radicals can be carried out by indirect electrochemical reduction with a Ni(II) complex as a mediator (70). 

Scheme 2). On the other hand, when the reduction potential of the organic substrate is more negative than that of carbon dioxide, one-electron reduction of carbon dioxide predominantly occurs to generate the radical anion of carbon dioxide, which reacts with organic substrates, typically...

Carbon dioxide is a linear molecule in which the oxygen atoms are weak Lewis (and Br0nsted) bases and the carbon is electrophilic. Reactions of carbon dioxide are dominated by nucleophilic attacks at the carbon, which result in bending of the O—C—O angle to about 120°. Figure 5.3 illustrates four very different nucleophilic reactions hydroxide attack on CO2 to form bicarbonate the initial addition of ammonia to CO2, which ultimately produces urea the binding of CO2 to a macrocyclic cobalt(I) complex, which catalyzes CO2 reduction and the addition of an electron to CO2 to yield the carbon dioxide radical ion. The first three also exemplify the reactivity of CO2 with respect to nucleophilic attack on the carbon. 

The mechanism of carbon dioxide reduction in aqueous and nonaqueous solutions was investigated by several authors. It is now generally accepted that the reduction of carbon dioxide to formate ions is a multistep reaction with the intermediate formation of free radicals CO2 and HCO2 either in the solution or adsorbed on the electrode ... 

Dietz and Peover examined the electrochemical reduction of cis and trans stilbene (114) in DMF containing carbon dioxide, 9>. The first electron transfer to trans-114 affords a planar radical anion (115) which then undergoes rapid reaction with carbon dioxide to produce, ultimately, 2,3-diphenylsuc-cinic acid (116) in... 

Both CO and C02 are reduced by eh. The immediate product of the first reaction is CO-, which reacts with water, giving OH and the formyl radical the latter has been identified by pulse radiolysis. The product of carbon dioxide reduction, C02-, is stable in the condensed phase with an absorption at 260 nm. It reacts with various organic radicals in addition reactions, giving carboxylates with rates that are competitive with ion-ion or radical-radical combination rates. 

The direct electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide requires very negative potentials, more negative than —2V vs. SCE. Redox catalysis, which implies the intermediacy of C02 (E° = —2.2 V vs. SCE), is accordingly rather inefficient.3 With aromatic anion radicals, catalysis is hampered in most cases by a two-electron carboxylation of the aromatic ring. Spectacular chemical catalysis is obtained with electrochemically generated iron(0) porphyrins, but the help of a synergistic effect of Bronsted and Lewis acids is required.4... 

Carbon dioxide, CO2, is a typical component of the gaseous environment for reactions in air or in the presence of air traces. Therefore, both interactions between CO2 and organic ion-radicals as well as reactions of 62 with uncharged molecules of organic compounds should be considered. Interaction of CO2 with organic anion-radicals leads, as a rule, to carboxylic acids COj" anion-radicals are not formed. Even such a one-electron reductant as the superoxide ion (in aprotic medium) simply adds to carbon dioxide CO2 + O2 -> 00-C02. The additional product accepts an electron ... 

Another pure-chemical route to the generation of the carbon dioxide anion-radical is the reduction of hydrogen peroxide with Ti + in the presence of formate ions (Morkovnik and Okhlobystin 1979) Ti + -E H2O2 TU+ -E QH -E OH and OH -E HCOO H2O + COj . ... 

The carbon dioxide anion-radical usually plays the role of a one-electron reductant in DMF its E° = -1.97 V (Amatore and Saveant 1981). In the gas phase, solitary C02 loses one electron with an exothermic effect of ca. 45 kJ moC (Compton et al. 1975). 

The carbon dioxide anion-radical was used for one-electron reductions of nitrobenzene diazo-nium cations, nitrobenzene itself, quinones, aliphatic nitro compounds, acetaldehyde, acetone and other carbonyl compounds, maleimide, riboflavin, and certain dyes (Morkovnik and Okhlobystin 1979). The double bonds in maleate and fumarate are reduced by CO2. The reduced products, on being protonated, give rise to succinate (Schutz and Meyerstein 2006). The carbon dioxide anion-radical reduces organic complexes of Co and Ru into appropriate complexes of the metals(II) (Morkovnik and Okhlobystin 1979). In particular, after the electron transfer from this anion radical to the pentammino-p-nitrobenzoato-cobalt(III) complex, the Co(III) complex with thep-nitrophenyl anion-radical fragment is initially formed. The intermediate complex transforms into the final Co(II) complex with the p-nitrobenzoate ligand. 

The radical-anion intermediates derived from aromatic imines behave as nucleophiles towards carbon dioxide, as with 48 [190,191]. Ibis nudeophic character is enhanced by reduction in the presence of chlorotrimethylsilane. A carbanion... 

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