Electrocarboxylation of Aromatic Ketones

The electrocarboxylation of aldehydes and ketones leads to the corresponding a-hydroxycarboxylic acids that can easily be converted into carboxylic acids via a hydrogenation reaction [7]. It has been reported that the electrocarboxylation of aromatic ketones occurs through the reaction of C02 onto the activated carbon atom of the carbonyl group of the ketyl radical anion generated upon electron transfer to the ketone [7]. Otherwise, the aforementioned intermediate is likely to be a resonance hybrid (see Equation 12.23), and its electrophilic reaction with C02 may take place both at the carbon or the oxygen atom [42, 43]. 

Hydroxcarboxylic acids of interest may be formed through these two different reaction pathways, all of which involve the consumption of two electrons per molecule of substrate carboxylated (see for example Equations 12.24—12.26). 

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