The Organometallic Chemistry of Carbon Dioxide

The possibility of recycling CO{sub 2} from industrial emissions and of removing some of this greenhouse gas, an environmental pollutant, is receiving increased attention. Also, the possibility of using CO{sub 2} as the starting material for the synthesis of fine chemicals provides an attractive alternative to compounds presently derived from petroleum. Efforts to convert CO{sub 2} to useful chemicals will inevitably center on transition metal catalysts. Furthermore, efforts to enhance the yield of hydrogen in water gas shift reactions are also centered on carbon dioxide interactions with transition metal catalysts. For all these reasons, a broader understanding of the organometallic chemistry of CO{sub 2} is being sought. In this article, only those compounds that can be clearly identified as having carbon dioxide bound to metal centers through carbon will be considered. Thus the discussions will not include metal formate complexes whose chemistry has been reviewed recently. Also, the discussions will not include metallocarboxylic acids or metallocarboxylate esters except where these compounds have been used as reagents for the synthesis of CO{sub 2} complexes or result from reactions of these compounds. 111 refs.