Exovinylene Cyclic Carbonates: Multifaceted CO2‐Based Building Blocks for Modern Chemistry and Polymer Science

Carbon dioxide is a renewable, inexhaustible and cheap alternative to fossil resources for the production of fine chemicals and plastics. This waste can notably be converted into exovinylene cyclic carbonates, unique synthons gaining momentum for preparing an impressive range of important organic molecules and functional polymers following 100% atom economy reactions under mild operating conditions in most cases. This review is summarizing the recent advances made in their synthesis with a particular attention to describe the catalysts needed for their preparation, and discuss the unique reactivity of these CO 2 -based heterocycles for constructing diverse organic building blocks and (functional) polymers. We also discuss the challenges and the future perspectives in the field.