Hydrocarbons, unsaturated catalytic carboxylation

The catalytic carboxylation of unsaturated hydrocarbons with CO2 to a,P-unsaturated carboxylates (i.e., acrylates) has been a topic of academic as well as industrial research for three decades, since seminal work of Hoberg and Yamamoto in the early 1980s. Although Hoberg et al. reported the catalytic nickel-catalyzed reaction of alkenes and iso-... 

Strained square planar structure of the PSiP-linkage would facilitate structural change to a trigonal bipyramidal geometry, which might allow coordination of CO2 for facile carboxylation. (iii) The pincer structure would enable a catalytic cycle based on Pd(II) without liberation of Pd(0), which causes side reactions through oxidative cyclization of unsaturated hydrocarbons. 

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