Chemical reduction of CO₂ facilitated by C-nucleophiles

The abundance of atmospheric CO₂ presents both an opportunity and a challenge for synthetic chemists to transform CO₂ into value-added products. A promising strategy involves CO₂ reduction driven by the energy stored in chemical bonds and promoted by molecules containing nucleophilic carbon sites. This approach allows the synthesis of new C-C or C-H bonds from CO₂-derived carbon. The first part of this Feature article deals with uncatalyzed reductions of CO₂ such as insertion into metal-carbon bonds and reactivity towards multidentate actor ligands and metal-free compounds. The second part covers catalytic reduction of CO₂ in which a nucleophilic C-site is involved. This review brings together two general approaches in the chemical CO₂ reduction field, showing how the discovery of fundamental reactivity of CO₂ leads to synthetic applications, and proposes directions for further development.