Acrylates from Alkenes and CO2, the Stuff That Dreams Are Made of

For more than three decades, the catalytic synthesis of acrylates from the cheap and abundantly available C1 building block CO2 and alkenes has been an unsolved problem in catalysis research, both in academia and industry. Acrylates and their downstream products are ubiquitous in daily life as hygiene products, coatings, adhesives, or plastics, etc., and they are manufactured globally on a multimillion ton level. Thus, a CO2-based route to such world-scale chemicals is economically most attractive, but, due to thermodynamic and kinetic hurdles, also highly challenging. Since the revolutionary work of Hoberg et al., metallalactones are discussed as possible intermediates in a catalytic cycle, but the reaction has not been existing until recently. Herein, we present our and others’ efforts on the development of a homogeneous catalyst that permits the catalytic synthesis of salts of α,β-unsaturated acids from CO2, alkenes, and a base. As this turned out to be difficult without a deeper mechanistic understanding, we highlight most recent mechanistic findings and also elaborate on unproductive reaction pathways.