CO2-Mediated Formation of Chiral Fine Chemicals

The utilization of carbon dioxide as a feedstock for the synthesis of organic chemicals can contribute to a more sustainable chemical industry, since CO2 is an abundant, inexpensive, and nontoxic renewable C1 resource. Nevertheless, far less attention was paid to the stereochemically controlled catalytic CO2 fixation/conversion processes. This review therefore aims to principally showcase the recent progress regarding CO2-mediated formation of chiral fine chemicals, including enantioselective synthesis of cyclic carbonates by asymmetric ring opening of epoxides with CO2, enantioselective synthesis of oxazolidinones by the coupling reaction of aziridines with CO2- or base-mediated formation of oxazolidinone from ethanolamines, metal-catalyzed enantioselective synthesis of functional carboxylic acids and derivatives, and enantioselective synthesis of CO2-based polycarbonates from epoxides.