Carbon dioxide based methodologies for the synthesis of fine chemicals

Abstract

Rapid environmental changes triggered by the increase in the concentration of heat-absorbing gases such as CO₂ in the atmosphere have become a major cause of concern. One of the ways to counter this growing threat will be to efficiently convert atmospheric CO₂ into value-added products via the development of efficient transition-metal-catalyzed processes. Conversion of CO₂ into bulk products such as CH₃OH and methane as well as its incorporation into commercial polyurethane synthesis has been achieved and reviewed extensively. However, the efficient transformation of CO₂ into fine chemicals and value-added chemicals has many fold advantages. Recent years have seen a rapid rise in the number of metal-mediated protocols to achieve this goal of converting CO₂ into fine chemicals. These are essential developments given the requirement of several commodities and fine chemicals in various industrial processes and the utilization of atmospheric CO₂ will help provide a sustainable solution to the current environmental problems. Accordingly, we present here a comprehensive compilation of catalytic processes, involving CO₂ as the C1 source for reacting with substrates such as alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, amines, acid chlorides, alcohols, allyl boronates, alkenyl triflates, and many others to provide easy access to a wide variety of useful molecules. Such a technology would certainly prove to be beneficial in solving the problems associated with the environmental accumulation of CO₂.