Transition metal-catalyzed carboxylation of organic substrates with carbon dioxide

The development of sustainable chemical processes is a long-standing challenge. Carbon dioxide represents a renewable C1 building block for organic synthesis and industrial applications as an alternative to other common feedstocks which are based on natural gas, petroleum oil, or coal. Apart from the advantages associated with the nontoxicity and abundance of CO2, its utilization further enables the reduction in its atmospheric content, which contributes significantly to the greenhouse effect. Although widespread application of CO2 in organic synthesis – even on an industrial scale – will not be able to fully compensate for the steadily increasing atmospheric quantities produced (mainly by the combustion of fuels), ecological and economical factors make its usage highly desirable. Therefore, tremendous efforts toward activation and utilization of CO2 have been made by the scientific community over the last 30 years, and, as a result, the number of highly efficient transition metal-catalyzed CO2-incorporative reactions has increased dramatically, especially within the last decade. The achievements in the development of sustainable and economic chemical processes for the carboxylation of organic molecules with CO2 are presented in detail in this chapter.