Carbon dioxide is a crucial molecule for life on earth, because it is used as an energy carrier and source of carbon via its transformation into carbohydrates. While Prof. Calvin was awarded the Noble prize in 1961 for describing this natural process, such transformation appears as an inaccessible challenge for chemists, since it implies to control the formation of a polyol carbon chain and the generation of asymmetric carbon centers. Few years ago, we started to study the hydroboration of CO2 and notably reported its controlled 4e- reduction to synthesize a large variety of products featuring new C-N, C-O and C-C bonds. Using a similar cascade strategy with an organocatalyzed second step, we are now able to generate carbohydrate for the first time from CO2 with chemical methods.

Reductive CO2 homologation: C-C homocoupling and asymmetric carbon generation

255th National Meeting (2018)

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