Chemical fixation of CO2 with aniline derivatives: A new avenue to the synthesis of functionalized azole compounds (A review)

The use of carbon dioxide (CO2) as a C1 feedstock in organic synthesis has attracted increasing attention since it may provide access to value-added chemicals from an economical, non-toxic, abundant, renewable and environmental friendly resource. Among these procedures, cyclization of aniline derivatives with CO2 to corresponding functionalized azoles represents one of the most attractive and straightforward protocols. This mini review survey research works on the preparation of benzene-fused azole compounds (benzimidazoles, benzothiazoles, and benzimidazolones) from the reaction of anilines with CO2. The review will be helpful for synthetic organic chemists to further investigations of this novel and interesting methodology and encourage them to the synthesis of important natural and biologically active azole derivatives employing this valuable synthetic strategy.