Sustainable Catalysis with Zinc Complexes: Mechanistic Perspectives and Emerging Strategies

Abstract Over the past few years, in the surrogacy of precious transition metals, the exploitation of non‐toxic earth‐abundant main group elements and 3d base metals has been growing at an astonishing rate. Among them, zinc compounds have emerged as a central figure in organic chemistry that can be traced back to the discovery of organozinc compounds by Sir Frankland in the 1850s and the pivotal role of organozinc compounds as a reagent in the “Negishi cross‐coupling reaction.” In the last ten years, strides covered by zinc complexes in a variety of reactivities and catalytic studies are ponderable. In this endeavor, numerous zinc complexes decorated with various purposefully tailored ligand frameworks have been synthesized to access highly efficient catalysts. The enhancement of Lewis acidity to improve catalytic performance has also been elaborated through the synthesis and reactivity studies of several cationic zinc complexes. The remarkable behavior of these cations has been reported for the activation of molecules like CO 2 , H 2 , and H─E (E = B, Si). This review article aims to provide a cumulative and comprehensive survey of the recent advancements in neutral and cationic zinc complexes. Special attention has been given to mechanistic insights, providing a holistic understanding of their catalytic behavior.