image: figure (a) depicts dicarboxylation of unsaturated substrates via single-electron transfer reduction strategy; figure (b) describes transition-metal-catalyzed dicarboxylation of unsaturated substrates via oxidative metallacyclization; figure (c) demonstrates dicarboxylation of C-X (X=C, B, O, H) single bonds with CO2. view more
Credit: ©Science China Press
This review is led by Dr. Da-Gang Yu (College of Chemistry, Sichuan University) and Dr. Li-Li Liao (School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University); Mr Chuan-Kun Ran and Han-Zhi Xiao are co-authors.
It is organized by introduction of the significance and conventional synthesis of dicarboxylic acids, followed by the advantages of using CO2 as a carboxyl source. After that, they elaborate different strategies for dicarboxylation with CO2 under various reaction systems in the order of electrochemistry, photocatalysis, and transition-metal catalysis. Moreover, they summarize the current dicarboxylation reaction systems with CO2, as well as the superior and inferior, respectively. Although this field has been developed for many decades, the substrates are still confined to activated substrates (i.e., activated alkenes), which limits its practical applications. While in terms of unactivated substrates, which are much more attractive and general, challenges remain to be solved. Here, they raised their minds and strategies to provide possibilities for solving the above challenges. The outlooks are drawn in the conclusion part, including (1) the dicarboxylation reactions of bulk chemicals with CO2, which is significant to both academic research and industrial applications; (2) the exploration of novel strategies to generate CO2 radical anion via single-electron activation of CO2 to facilitate dicarboxylation reactions, which may allow the transformation of inert substrates; (3) the utilization of CO2 in low concentration and the usage of green solvent for further practical applications; (4) the combination of experimental operation and theoretical calculation to probe efficient methods, which would benefit the high-value added conversion of CO2.
See the article:
The progress and challenges in dicarboxylation with CO2
https://doi.org/10.1360/nso/20220024
Journal
National Science Open