Cu-Catalyzed highly regioselective 1,2-hydrocarboxylation of 1,3-dienes with CO2

A practical copper-catalyzed highly regioselective 1,2-hydrocarboxylation of terminal 1,3-diene with carbon dioxide has been developed. Under mild reaction conditions, this chemistry afforded 2-benzyl-beta,gamma-unsaturated acid derivatives as products, which are a kind of important unit for bio-active molecules and versatile precursors for organic synthesis, with good functional group tolerance. The key intermediate in this transformation is illustrated by control experiments.