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We report a facile and economical synthesis of α-fluoroacrylic acids via direct electrochemical defluorinative carboxylation of gem-difluoroalkenes with CO2. By using a platinum plate as the working cathode and a cheap nickel plate as the anode in a user-friendly undivided cell under constant current conditions, the reactions proceed smoothly under room temperature, without the use of expensive transition metal catalysts, ligands, external base or reductant, affording the desired adducts in up to 83% yield and 20:1 Z/E ratio, with good functional group tolerance. A cyclic voltammetry study was conducted and suggested a novel ECEC process.

We report a tandem asymmetric aldehyde–alkyne–amine (A3) coupling-carboxylative cyclization sequence for the highly enantioselective synthesis of chiral N-aryl 2-oxazolidinones. This is a rare example of a multicatalyst-promoted asymmetric tandem reaction using CO2 as a C1 synthon. Notably, the copper species and ligand from the upstream A3 reaction are internally reused to facilitate the downstream silver-catalyzed carboxylative cyclization.