ChemInform Abstract: Alkanes to Carboxylic Acids in Aqueous Medium: Metal-Free and Metal-Promoted Highly Efficient and Mild Conversions

A convenient and clean route to transform, in aqueous medium, various alkanes to carboxylic acidsvia single-pot carboxylation with CO and water, under mild conditions, has been achieved, proceeding efficiently and selectively even without any metal catalyst and any acid additive, at low temperatures; the relevant hydroxylating role of H2O and radical mechanisms are disclosed by radical-trap, H218O and DFT studies.