Researchers at Okayama University, Japan, have developed a porphyrin catalyst that can fix carbon dioxide thus making this unreactive gas useful as a carbon source.

The synthesis of cyclic carbonates could specifically be an atom efficient process for the raw materials for electrolytes in
lithium-ion batteries, polycarbonates, and polar aprotic solvents. Metalloporphyrins have attracted considerable interest in this area.

The Okayama team has demonstrated a high turnover number (TON = 103,000) for their reaction and suggest that the highly functionalized coordination site of such porphyrins offers chemists the opportunity to enhance the compounds’ catalytic activity even more.

• A bifunctional catalyst for carbon dioxide fixation: cooperative double activation of epoxides for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates,
  Tadashi Ema, Yuki Miyazaki, Shohei Koyama, Yuya Yano Takashi Sakai,
  Chem. Commun. 2012.
  DOI: 10.1039/C2CC30591G