Ionic Liquids Catalysis for Carbon Dioxide Conversion With Nucleophiles

Carbon dioxide, as a promising C₁ synthon, has attracted great interest in organic synthesis. Due to the thermodynamic stability and kinetic inertness of CO₂, developing efficient strategies for CO₂ activation and subsequent conversion is very crucial. In this context, Ionic liquids (ILs) show great potential for capturing and activating CO₂ owing to their unique structures and properties, making them become ideal alternatives to volatile organic solvents and/or catalysts for CO₂ transformation. This minireview aims at summarizing ILs-promoted reactions of CO₂ 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 CO₂ 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 CO₂ utilization.