Francisco Juliá-Hernández

Catalytic carboxylation of aliphatic feedstocks with CO₂

The conversion of feedstock materials into added-value substances or building-blocks represents a main driver for the development of sustainable synthetic transformations. The catalytic incorporation of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into organic molecules has an important role to play in this, as it allows the formation of carbon-carbon bonds adopting an inexpensive and abundant C1 synthon. The catalytic preparation of carboxylic acids with CO₂ is exceptionally alluring, as these species are important structural motifs in many industrially relevant compounds. Recently, we have developed various orthogonal catalytic systems that demonstrate an outstanding ability to combine CO₂ and biomass-derived materials to obtain added-value fatty acids. This approach offers the possibility to turn CO₂ and unrefined hydrocarbons, such as bulk alkanes and unrefined mixtures of olefins, into single isomeric carboxylic acids with very high selectivity and under mild conditions.