Recent Advances in the Catalytic Preparation of Cyclic Organic Carbonates

Abstract

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