Photocatalytic reductive incorporation of carbon dioxide into double bonds.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a challenging molecule to incorporate into olefins due to its inherent inert properties. Silanes have now been shown to rapidly react selectively with CO2, catalysed by the presence of a caesium base, to form formate salts which can undergo a hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) to give the desired CO2˙- adducts in the presence of activated olefins.