Acrylate formation from CO2 and ethylene: catalysis with palladium and mechanistic insight

We report the first catalyst based on palladium for the reaction of CO₂, alkene and a base to form sodium acrylate and derivatives. A mechanism similar to a previously reported Ni(0)-catalyst is proposed based on stoichiometric in situ NMR experiments, isolated intermediates and a parent palladalactone. Our palladium catalyst was applied to the coupling of CO₂ with conjugated alkenes.

Authors: S. Chantal, E. Stieber, N. Huguet, T. Kageyama, I. Jevtovikj, P. Ariyananda, A. Gordillo, S. A. Schunk, F. Rominger, P. Hofmann, M. Limbach