Abstract

Carbon dioxide is generally known as one of the main greenhouse gasses which have caused a series of environmental problems. On the other hand, CO₂ can also be regard as an abundant, nontoxic, renewable and economical C₁-synthon in organic synthesis. Chemical utilization of CO₂ has attracted more and more attentions all over the world and has been studied extensively and intensely for decades. Meanwhile, acrylic acid is a valuable chemical which has been widely used in industry. From the point of sustainable development, the direct installation of CO₂ into organic compounds to afford carboxylic acid derivatives is one of the most concise and promising ways for CO₂ utilization. In this article, advances in the metal-promoted carboxylation reaction of alkynes and allenes with carbon dioxide are highlighted with mechanistic understanding on a molecular level.

Keywords: Acrylic acid, allene, alkyne, boracarboxylation, carbon dioxide, carboxylation, catalysis, green chemistry, Grignard reagents, hydrocarboxylation, hydropalladation, metallic latone, pyrone, silacarboxylation, transition metal.