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Silver tungstate was successfully developed as a bifunctional catalyst for the ligand-free carboxylation of various terminal alkynes with electron-withdrawing or electron-donating groups under atmospheric pressure of carbon dioxide (CO2) at room temperature. In this protocol, dual activation – i.e., the terminal alkyne activated by silver, and CO2 activation by the tungstate anion – was verified using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and means that this reaction can be run under ambient conditions. Notably, this protocol can be applied to the preparation of a phenylacrylate derivative by a cascade reaction using phenylacetylene, CO2 and benzylamine as starting materials.

An efficient method for the synthesis of 3a-hydroxyisoxazolo[3,2-a]isoindol-8(3aH)-ones from CO2, terminal alkynes, EtBr, and NHPI (N-hydroxyphthalimide) was developed through a tandem carboxylation/annulation strategy catalyzed by a copper(I)/phosphine system. This one-pot multicomponent reaction was conducted at atmospheric CO2 pressure to afford the target products in good to excellent yields under mild conditions. Notably, a wide range of functional groups were tolerated in this procedure. This protocol with simultaneous formation of four novel bonds i.e. two C–C bonds and two C–O bonds represents an efficient methodology for upgrading CO2 into heterocycles.

The CuI-catalyzed carboxylation of terminal alkynes with CO2 and alkyl halides using ethylene carbonate as the solvent under mild conditions was studied. DFT calculations reveal that the energy barrier for CO2 insertion into the sp-hybridized Cu-C bond could be reduced by employing ethylene carbonate as the solvent. Notably, the procedure was conducted under ambient CO2 pressure without any external ligands. A broad range of substrates with electron-withdrawing groups or electron-donating groups gave the corresponding products in reasonable yields.