Low-cost and high-performance acetylglucose-based imidazolium salts for copper-catalyzed cyclization of propargylic amines and CO₂

Abstract

The rise of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in atmosphere is considered as a major cause of global warming. Therefore, CO₂ utilization has attracted increasing attention. Among those, using CO₂ as C1-feedstock for “value carbon” in advanced chemicals provides a solution. Here, we show an acetylglucose-based imidazolium salt for Cu-catalyzed cyclization of propargylic amines and CO₂ with an excellent turnover frequency value of 400 h⁻¹. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first example of acetylglucose-based imidazolium salts for a noble-metal-free Cu catalytic system for the cyclization of propargylic amines and CO₂.

Graphical Abstract

Low-cost and high-efficiency acetylglucosyl-based imidazolium Cu catalytic system for CO₂ conversion has been developed, which can boost a record turnover frequency of 400 h⁻¹ in Cu-catalyzed carboxycyclization of terminal propargylic amines and CO₂.

Keywords:

• CO₂
• copper catalytic system
• glucopyranoside-based imidazolium salt
• noble-metal-free
• propargylic amines

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the Supporting Information of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22261002), the Key Project of Jiangxi Provincial Department of Science and Technology (Nos. S2023ZRZDL0164 and 20232ACB203016), the Innovative Special Fund Project for Graduate Students of Jiangxi Province (No. YC2023-S845), and the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education (Nos. GJJ201427 and SZUGSHX2022-1043).