Synthesis of ethanol, methanol and carboxylic acids using copper-based catalysts

Recently, organic synthesis using carbon dioxide (CO2) has been actively studied for possible countermeasures against global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The recycling and reuse of CO2 can reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and avoid further damage to the earth’s ecological environment. For example, many kinds of methods are advanced to prepare useful chemicals from CO2, where these useful chemicals include ethanol, methanol and carboxylic acid. The introduction of catalysts in CO2-based chemical synthesis can speed up the reaction and also tune the product species. The transition metal complexes have become essential in those synthesis reactions. As catalysts, they have a broad prospect because it is cheap in price, vast in reserves and less harmful to the environment. This research summarizes the function of copper-based catalysts in synthesis of different compounds, such as ethanol, methanol and carboxylic acid. The use of these catalysts is expected to provide a new idea for subsequent CO2-based organic synthesis.