萌妹社区

Using fixation reactions to convert free carbon dioxide (CO2) into different organic molecules is an attractive strategy to cut industrial greenhouse gas levels with marginal waste. Now, broadening the scope of CO2 fixation is possible using a method developed by a research team in Japan led by Zhaomin Hou from the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako, Japan. The method uses a 鈥榞reen鈥� catalyst system that transforms alkyl鈥揵oron molecules into carboxylic acids鈥攁n important ingredient for pharmaceutical production.

Organic boron compounds are attractive fixation substrates because they readily participate in carbon鈥揷arbon bond-forming reactions. Recently, chemists have used transition metal catalysts to activate hydrocarbons bonded to oxygenated boron esters; addition of CO2 then splits off the activated group and generates a carboxylic acid derivative. However, attempts to reproduce this chemistry with alkylboranes鈥攁 widespread class of important synthetic reagents鈥攈ave had limited success because the so-called 鈥榗atalytic transition metal alkyl鈥� intermediates are usually unstable and decompose before reacting with CO2.

Hou and colleagues turned to an innovative chemical system to resolve this instability. By combining electron-donating, bulky molecules called N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) with copper atoms, they made metal alkyl complexes that can promote carbon鈥揷arbon bond formation with CO2 under mild conditions and at lower cost than most precious metal catalysts鈥攊deal characteristics for sustainably recycling CO2 emissions.

First, the researchers produced an easily activated alkylborane by connecting borabicyclononane (BBN)鈥攁 highly strained set of boron鈥揾ydrocarbon rings鈥攖o the terminal atom of a carbon鈥揷arbon double bond. In this approach, the target hydrocarbon for CO2 addition is physically and electronically quite different from the two carbon鈥揵oron bonds of the BBN rings.

Hou and colleagues then mixed the alkylborane with the copper鈥揘HC catalyst, a base, and CO2 in a pressurized chamber. After one day at 70 掳C, they found that the target had transformed into a new carboxylic acid with near-quantitative yields. Diverse molecules bearing aromatic, halogenated, and bulky functional groups could all act as CO2 fixation substrates using this technique.

The copper鈥揘HC catalyst offered another advantage to the team: a unique chemical environment that enabled isolation of several catalytic intermediates as solid crystals. X-ray measurements of these structures provided the first hard evidence that bonding interactions between alkoxide base molecules, copper atoms, and alkylboranes are critical to enabling CO2 addition (Fig. 1). 鈥淔ine-tuning the combination of central metals, bases, and supporting ligands will eventually lead to more efficient and selective catalysts,鈥� notes Hou.