Transition-metal-catalyzed decarbonylation of carboxylic acids to olefins: exploiting acyl C–O activation for the production of high value products

Abstract

Transition-metal-catalyzed decarbonylation reactions of aliphatic carboxylic acids produce olefins via one carbon degradation. Recently, tremendous progress has been made in the development of new protocols for the synthesis of linear olefins by the formal acyl C–O activation mechanism of ubiquitous carboxylic acids. Various transition metals including nickel, palladium, iridium and iron have been shown to catalyze the reaction and achieve excellent yields and selectivity. The use of new ligand systems has resulted in unprecedented control of selectivity of elementary steps in the catalytic cycle. The development of new acyl precursors expands the access to α-olefins and offers promising perspectives for applications in preparative organic synthesis. In this article, we highlight the recent noteworthy developments in the transition-metal-catalyzed decarbonylation of carboxylic acids and discuss future challenges in this field.