Recent advances in processes and catalysts for glycerol carbonate production via direct and indirect use of CO2

Carbon dioxide is ideal for carboxylation reactions as a renewable and sustainable C1 feedstock and has significant recognition owing to its low cost, non-toxicity, and high abundance. To depreciate the environmental concentration of CO2 which causes the greenhouse gas effect, developing new catalytic protocols for organic synthesis in CO2 utilization is of great importance. This review focuses on carboxylation reactions using CO2 as a C1 feedstock to synthesize value-added functionalized carboxylic acids and their corresponding derivatives via catalytically generated allyl metal intermediates, photoredox catalysis, and electrocatalysis with a focus on recent developments and opportunities in catalyst design for carboxylation reactions. In this article, we describe recent developments in the carboxylation of C–H bonds, alkenes, and alkynes using CO2 as the C1 source for various reactions under different conditions, as well as the potential direction for the further development of CO2 utilization in organic synthesis.