Advances in the Production of Acrylic Acid and Its Derivatives by CO2/C2H4 Coupling

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is not just a greenhouse gas, but also an important and effective one-carbon resource, which is abundant in nature and can be used to produce organic chemicals, materials, and sugars etc. CO2 is thermodynamically and kinetically inert because the carbon atom in CO2 molecule is in its highest oxidation state. In the past decades, several catalytic systems have been developed for the utilization of CO2. The catalytic conversion of CO2 to unsaturated carboxylic acids and their derivatives has attracted great attention. Among them, the so-called "dream reaction" of coupling CO2/C2H4 is 100% atom efficient. Transition metal-based catalysts are developed for catalytic transformation of CO2/C2H4 into acrylic acid and its derivatives, including Ni, Pd, Fe, and Ru etc. In addition, the additives play an important role in improving the catalyst performance. In this review, the recent advances on transition metal complex catalyzed CO2/C2H4 coupling reaction are summarized on the basis of catalyst activity and reaction mechanisms, including both the experiment and theoretical calculation. Furthermore, the challenges and perspectives in the catalytic transformation of CO2/C2H4 are also discussed.