Ni-catalyzed direct carboxylation of benzyl halides with CO2.

A novel Ni-catalyzed carboxylation of benzyl halides with CO(2) has been developed. The described carboxylation reaction proceeds under mild conditions (atmospheric CO(2) pressure) at room temperature. Unlike other routes for similar means, our method does not require well-defined and sensitive organometallic reagents and thus is a user-friendly and operationally simple protocol for assembling phenylacetic acids.