Synthesis of acrylic acid and acrylates from CO2 and ethylene — the thorny path from dream to reality

Development of atom-economy and efficient processes for production of various chemical products utilizing of CO₂ as C₁-synthon plays more and more important role in the contemporary scientific and technological research. Due to the inertness of CO₂, many extremely attractive routes to valuable chemicals prove impossible to accomplish, in particular for thermodynamic reasons, and one can only dream about this as something unattainable. In this article it will be described how the catalytic coupling of ethylene and CO₂ into acrylic acid has not only become a reality, but rather a technological process. The key stages of the long-term development of this unique reaction from the discovery of metal activation of CO₂ and stoichiometric production of metallactones to catalytic synthesis using a number of metal catalysts (Ni, Pd, Ru, Rh) demonstrate the creativity and skill of the researchers, as well as an example of the consistent development of this area of chemistry. We believe that this remarkable successful example will encourage scientists to solve any "impossible" problems. The bibliography includes 117 references.