The catalytic formation of cyclic organic carbonates
(COCs) using carbon dioxide (CO2) as a renewable carbon feed
stock is a highly vibrant area of research with an increasing amount of
researchers focusing on this thematic investigation. These organic
carbonates are highly useful building blocks and nontoxic reagents
and are most commonly derived from CO2 coupling reactions with
oxirane and dialcohol precursors using homogeneous catalysis methodologies. The activation of suitable reaction partners using
catalysis as a key technology is a requisite for efficient CO2 conversion as its high kinetic stability poses a barrier to access
functional organic molecules with added value in both academic and industrial laboratories. Although this area of science has
been flourishing for at least a decade, in the past 2−3 years, significant advancements have been made to address the general
reactivity and selectivity issues that are associated with the formation of COCs. Here, we present a concise overview of these
activities with a primary focus to highlight the most important progress made and the opportunities that catalysis can bring about
when the synthesis of these intermediates is optimized to a higher level of sophistication. The attention will be limited to those
cases in which homogeneous metal-containing systems have been employed because they possess the highest potential for
directed organic synthesis using CO2 as molecular building block. This review discusses examples of exceptional reactivity and
selectivity, taking into account the challenging nature of the substrates that were involved, and mechanistic understanding guiding
the optimization of these protocols is also highlighted.
