Visible-Light-Driven Reduction of CO$_2$ to CO and Its Subsequent Valorization in Carbonylation Chemistry and $^{13}$C Isotope Labeling

Abstract : A convenient and safe approach in valorizing carbon monoxide (CO) produced from the photocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide (CO$_2$) has been investigated. Visible light was used to drive an optimized photocatalytic reduction using a ruthenium trisbipyridine complex as a sensitizer and a rhenium bipyridyl carbonyl complex as a catalyst to perform an efficient reduction of CO2 to CO, which was then simultaneously utilized in a palladium-catalyzed aminocarbonylation reaction at room temperature. This approach provides a safe handling of the produced CO which also opens the way for a more efficient application of $^{13}$C-isotope and $^{14}$C-radioisotope labeled CO$_2$ in pharmaceutically-relevant drug labeling.