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Updated: Aug 23, 2025

Light-driven Enzymatic Decarboxylation
Published on: May 22, 2016
Photoelectrochemical Asymmetric Catalysis Enables Direct and Enantioselective Decarboxylative Cyanation
Xiao-Li Lai1, Ming Chen1, Yuqi Wang2
1State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology of Fujian Province, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, PR China.
Abstract:
The development of efficient and sustainable methods for decarboxylative transformations is of great importance due to the ease of availability and nontoxicity of carboxylic acids. Despite tremendous efforts in this area, it remains challenging to develop enantioselective transformations direct from carboxylic acids. Herein we disclose a photoelectrocatalytic method for the direct and enantioselective decarboxylative cyanation. The photoelectrochemical reactions convert carboxylic acids to enantioenriched nitriles by employing cerium/copper relay catalysis with a cerium salt for catalytic decarboxylation and a chiral copper complex for stereoselective C-CN formation.
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