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Updated: Nov 14, 2025

Light-driven Enzymatic Decarboxylation
Published on: May 22, 2016
Visible-Light-Induced Catalyst-Free Carboxylation of Acylsilanes with Carbon Dioxide
Zhengning Fan1, Yaping Yi1, Shenhao Chen1
1MOE Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Intermolecular carbon-carbon bond formation between acylsilanes and carbon dioxide (CO2) was achieved by photoirradiation under catalyst-free conditions. In this reaction, siloxycarbenes generated by photoisomerization of the acylsilanes added to the C═O bond of CO2 to give α-ketocarboxylates, which underwent hydrolysis to afford α-ketocarboxylic derivatives in good yields. Control experiments suggest that the generated siloxycarbene is likely to be from the singlet state (S1) of the acylsilane and the addition to CO2 is not in a concerted manner.
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