CO₂ chemistry at Nankai group: Catalytic conversion of co ₂ into value-added chemicals

Carbon dioxide is very attractive as a typical renewable feedstock for manufacturing commodity chemicals, fuels and materials since it is an abundant, nontoxic, nonflammable and easily available carbon resource. In this context, development of catalytic methodologies for chemical transformation of CO ₂ into useful compounds is of paramount importance from a standpoint of C1 chemistry and green chemistry. Great efforts have been directed towards constructing C-C, C-O and C-N bond on the basis of CO₂ activation through molecular catalysis owing to its kinetic and thermodynamic stability. The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the versatile use of CO₂ in organic synthesis, with the main focus on utilization of CO₂ as a building block for synthesis of industrial useful compounds such as cyclic carbonates, oxazolidinones, lactones, quinazolines, etc. The potential use of dense CO₂ as an alternative solvent and otherwise specific roles in organic synthesis are also evaluated. The most results presented herein could be based on our recent research work on CO₂ chemistry.