Decarboxylative Coupling Reactions

Decarboxylative couplings are chemical transformations in which carboxylic acids extrude CO, and form new bonds in the place of the former carboxylate group. In recent years, a large number of such reactions with considerable synthetic potential has been developed. This article reviews the rapidly emerging area of decarboxylative couplings. A focus is set on redox-neutral cross-couplings, a novel concept for carbon-carbon bond formation that was developed in our group.