New Trends in the Conversion of CO2 to Cyclic Carbonates

This work concerns recent advances (mainly in the last five years) in the challenging conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into fine chemicals, in particular to cyclic carbonates, as a meaningful measure to reduce CO2 emissions in the atmosphere and subsequent global warming effects. Thus, efficient catalysts and catalytic processes developed to convert CO2 into different chemicals towards a more sustainable chemical industry are addressed. Cyclic carbonates can be produced by different routes that directly, or indirectly, use carbon dioxide. Thus, recent findings on CO2 cycloaddition to epoxides as well as on its reaction with diols are reviewed. In addition, indirect sources of carbon dioxide, such as urea, considered a sustainable process with high atom economy, are also discussed. Reaction mechanisms for the transformations involved are also presented.