Recent Developments in the Synthesis of Cyclic Carbonates from Epoxides and CO2

Abstract

The use of CO₂ as a C1 building block will be of essential importance in the future. In this context the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from epoxides and CO₂ gained great attention recently. These products are valuable compounds in a variety of chemical fields. The development of new catalysts and catalytic systems for this atom-economic, scalable, and industrially relevant reaction is a highly active research field. Over the past 17 years great advances have been made in this area of research. This chapter covers the survey of the important known classes of homogeneous catalysts for the addition of CO₂ to epoxides. Besides pioneering work, recent developments and procedures that allow this transformation under mild reaction conditions (reaction temperatures of ≤100 °C and/or CO₂ pressures of 0.1 MPa) are especially emphasized.

Keywords: 1,3-Dioxolan-2-one; CO2; Carbon dioxide; Catalysis; Cyclic carbonates; Epoxide; Green chemistry; Homogeneous catalysis; Ionic liquids; Main group metal catalysis; Onium salts; Organocatalysis; Transition metal catalysis.