Carbon dioxide serves as carbonyl source in frugal process for making aromatic esters
Nanoscale confinement triggers strong base reactivity in process that shuns stoichiometric consumption of resource intensive reagents
US researchers have developed a two-step cycle that inserts carbon dioxide into aromatic hydrocarbons without expensive reagents – an approach that could help turn waste carbon dioxide into valuable carbon feedstock chemicals, such as commodity carboxylic acids and their derivatives.