Abstract
This review is dedicated to the state-of-the art routes used for the synthesis of CO2-based (a)cyclic carbonates and polycarbonates from alcohol substrates, with an emphasis on their respective main advantages and limitations. The first section reviews the synthesis of organic carbonates such as dialkyl carbonates or cyclic carbonates from the carbonation of alcohols. Many different synthetic strategies have been reported (dehydrative condensation, the alkylation route, the “leaving group” strategy, the carbodiimide route, the protected alcohols route, etc.) with various substrates (mono-alcohols, diols, allyl alcohols, halohydrins, propargylic alcohols, etc.). The second section reviews the formation of polycarbonates via the direct copolymerization of CO2 with diols, as well as the ring-opening polymerization route. Finally, polycondensation processes involving CO2-based dimethyl and diphenyl carbonates with aliphatic and aromatic diols are described.
Highlights
Today, our modern society is facing climate change and ocean acidification caused by the continuous increase in CO2 levels within the atmosphere
This review provides an overview of the progress made in the synthesis of (a)cyclic and polymeric carbonates from alcohols substrates
The ketal decomposes in situ into the former ketone and an alcohol that is subsequently involved in a cascade coupling reaction with CO2 to afford the acyclic carbonate (Scheme 9)
Summary
Our modern society is facing climate change and ocean acidification caused by the continuous increase in CO2 levels within the atmosphere. The growth of which is inter-seasonal and requires multi-step post-treatment (extraction, fractionation, fermentation, etc.) prior to valorization, CO2 is a cheap and renewable carbon source that is regenerated instantaneously and locally This resource may undergo numerous chemical processes and syntheses to design existing organic molecules or polymers or new (sophisticated) ones [4,5,6]. Despite being very attractive and produced via facile oxidation of olefins, including natural ones derived from vegetable oils or terpenes, epoxides display acute toxicity, as they act as alkylating agents capable of binding with DNA [14,15] In this context, the replacement of epoxides with safe and easy-to-handle (renewable) substrates to synthesize organic carbonates and polycarbonates is gaining huge interest in the scientific community.
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