Abstract
Utilization of carbon-rich fossil fuels and chemical feedstocks, including coal, oil and natural gas, has led to tremendous prosperity. However, the focus on wealth creation largely ignored the parallel adverse side effects, such as the increased level of CO2 in the atmosphere which results in climate change. There has been significant progress converting CO2 into fuels using catalytic and electrochemical processes. However, less efforts have been devoted to the discovery of new heterogeneous catalysts that use CO2 as a synthon for the synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals. This proposal is concerned with the development of heterogeneous catalysts for the dicarbofunctionalization of alkynes and alkenes to afford carboxylic acids and related derivatives using CO2 as the carbon source. These catalysts will be used to synthesize derivatives of a range of organic motifs including functionally challenging molecules present in the pharmaceuticals. At the end of the project, a toolbox of catalysts is anticipated that provide economically attractive routes to use CO2 for the synthesis of medicines and potentially other products.
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