Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is an important component in the air and well-known as a greenhouse gas that has an important impact on climate change. Meanwhile, it is also an inexpensive, readily available, non-toxic, and renewable carbon-resource. In order to promote resource discovery, environmental protection and sustainable human development, it is of great significance to transfer CO₂ to valuable molecules, such as drugs, materials and fuels. However, due to its thermodynamic stability and kinetic inertness, it is highly challenging to achieve efficient transformations of CO₂ under mild conditions. Our group has been focusing on CO₂ utilization in organic synthesis since 2015. In this talk I will introduce the direct use of CO₂ as the combination of CO and oxidant (“CO₂ = CO + [O]”) to realize the redox-neutral lactamization and lactonization of C─H bonds.² In addition, I will also talk about radical-type organic transformations with CO₂, highly enantioselective transformations of alkenes with CO₂, as well as the photocatalytic carboxylations of bulk chemicals to generate a variety of substituted diacids, amino acids, hydroxyl acids and other monomers for polymerization. We hope these efforts will provide new methods for efficient CO₂ utilization in organic synthesis.

Selected References：

[1] For our reviews, see: a) Coord. Chem. Rev. 2018, 374, 439. b) Chem. Commun. 2020, 56, 8355. c) Sci. China Chem. 2020, 63, 1336. d) Acc. Chem. Res. 2021, 54, 2518.

[2] For selected examples, see: a) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 7068. b) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 10022. c) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 15416. d) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 17011. e) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 13897. f) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 17338. g) Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 3592. h) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 18825. i) Nat. Commun. 2020, 11, 3263. j) CCS Chem. 2020, 2, 1746. k) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 21121. l) Nat. Catal. 2021, 4, 304. m) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 2812; n) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 14068; o) Nat. Commun. 2021, 12, 3306; p) Chem 2021, 7, 3099; q) Nat. Commun. 2021, 12, 7086; r) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 2062.