Electrocatalytic processes for the valorization of CO<inf>2</inf>: Synthesis of cyanobenzoic acid using eco-friendly strategies

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is a known greenhouse gas, and is the most important contributor to global warming. Therefore, one of the main challenges is to either eliminate or reuse it through the synthesis of value-added products, such as carboxylated derivatives. One of the most promising approaches for activating, capturing, and valorizing CO₂ is the use of electrochemical techniques. In the current manuscript, we described an electrocarboxylation route for synthesizing 4-cyanobenzoic acid by valorizing CO₂ through the synergistic use of electrochemical techniques (“green technology”) and ionic liquids (ILs) (“green solvents”)-two of the major entries in the general green chemistry tool kit. Moreover, the use of silver cathodes and ILs enabled the electrochemical potential applied to be reduced by more than 0.4 V. The “green” synthesis of those derivatives would provide a suitable environmentally friendly process for the design of plasticizers based on phthalate derivatives.