Chemical reduction of CO facilitated by C-nucleophiles

• Published in: Chemical communications (Cambridge, England) England), 2017-10, Vol.53 (83), p.1139-11398
• Main Authors: Janes, Trevor, Yang, Yanxin, Song, Datong
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 1359-7345; 1364-548X
• DOI: 10.1039/c7cc05978g

The abundance of atmospheric CO 2 presents both an opportunity and a challenge for synthetic chemists to transform CO 2 into value-added products. A promising strategy involves CO 2 reduction driven by the energy stored in chemical bonds and promoted by molecules containing nucleophilic carbon sites. This approach allows the synthesis of new C-C or C-H bonds from CO 2 -derived carbon. The first part of this Feature article deals with uncatalyzed reductions of CO 2 such as insertion into metal-carbon bonds and reactivity towards multidentate actor ligands and metal-free compounds. The second part covers catalytic reduction of CO 2 in which a nucleophilic C-site is involved. This review brings together two general approaches in the chemical CO 2 reduction field, showing how the discovery of fundamental reactivity of CO 2 leads to synthetic applications, and proposes directions for further development. This feature article describes recent advances in chemical reduction of CO 2 facilitated by carbon-based molecular nucleophiles.