Recent developments in carbon dioxide utilization under mild conditions

The use of carbon dioxide as a renewable and environmentally friendly source of carbon is highly attractive. This article focuses on recent developments in important new reactions and new catalysts for homogeneous CO2 transformations under mild reaction conditions. Other than traditional organometallic catalysts, organocatalysts have also been applied in the chemical conversion of CO2 and have demonstrated very promising ability in this field. As the coupling of epoxides with CO2 to form cyclic carbonates or polycarbonates has been well documented, it will be excluded from this article.