Ionic Liquids Catalysis for Carbon Dioxide Conversion With Nucleophiles

Carbon dioxide, as a promising C(1) synthon, has attracted great interest in organic synthesis. Due to the thermodynamic stability and kinetic inertness of CO(2), developing efficient strategies for CO(2) activation and subsequent conversion is very crucial. In this context, Ionic liquids (ILs) show great potential for capturing and activating CO(2) owing to their unique structures and properties, making them become ideal alternatives to volatile organic solvents and/or catalysts for CO(2) transformation. This minireview aims at summarizing ILs-promoted reactions of CO(2) with N-nucleophiles (primary amines)/O-nucleophiles (primary alcohols, water). Two catalytic systems i.e., metal/ILs binary systems such as Cu/ILs systems and Ag/ILs systems as well as single ILs systems including anion-functionalized ILs and bifunctionalized ILs have been developed for CO(2) catalytic conversion, for instance, carboxylative cyclization of nucleophiles e.g., propargylic alcohols, amines, 2-aminobenzonitriles and o-aminobenzenethiol, and formylation of amines or 2-aminothiophenols with hydrosilanes to afford various value-added chemicals e.g., cyclic carbamates, unsymmetrical organic carbonates, α-hydroxyl ketones, and benzimidazolones. In a word, IL could provide a powerful tool for efficient CO(2) utilization.