Recent advances in the homogeneous hydrogenation of carbon dioxide

Homogeneous hydrogenation of carbon dioxide continues to attract interest in the hope of finding active and selective catalysts for the production of valuable organics based on this cheap and abundant carbon source. This review covers advances published or in press since 1995. The survey of the field shows that while very active catalysts and co-catalysts have been discovered in this period for the production of formic acid and its derivatives, there has been only preliminary development of homogeneous catalysts for the production of other oxygenates (e.g. methanol, CO) and C(n)-compounds (n > 1). (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.