Encapsulation of chiral CoII(R,R)(salen) in mesocellular foam as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for asymmetric electrocarboxylation of 1-phenyl-ethyl chloride with CO2

The electrocarboxylation of organic molecules with CO2 allows the synthesis of important carboxylic acids under mild conditions. The introduction of chiral sources enables the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of chiral carboxylic acids using CO2 as a C1 source, which has important application prospects. In this work, we have successfully prepared chiral immobilized electrode materials by encapsulating chiral CoII(R,R)(salen) (CoIIL) complexes in the pores of mesocellular foam (MCF) materials using the strategy of silanization to reduce the pore size. The prepared CoIIL@MCF composites exhibited good electrocatalytic performance in the asymmetric electrocarboxylation of 1-phenylethyl chloride with CO2, leading to the synthesis of chiral 2-phenylpropionic acid with an enantiomeric excess value of 71% and a yield of 49%. The encapsulated CoIIL@MCF composites can significantly reduce the amount of chiral CoIIL complexes used. Moreover, they are stable, easy to separate, and have excellent reusability.