Electroreductive carboxylation of benzylphosphonium salts with CO 2 through the cleavage of the C(sp 3 )-P bond.

Herein, a electroreductive carboxylation of benzylphosphonium salts was achieved by the cleavage of the C(sp 3 )-P bond, and various valuable arylacetic acids could be synthesized by this strategy. Also, based on control experiments and previous studies, a plausible reaction mechanism was proposed to explain the reaction process. The establishment of this procedure will provide a new paradigm for the functionalization of alkyl phosphonium salts.