Synergetic activation of CO2 by the DBU-organocatalyst and amine substrates towards stable carbamate salts for synthesis of oxazolidinones

The development of an efficient methodology to transform CO2 into valuable chemicals has attracted increasing attention concerning the challenging issues of CO2-utilization. Herein, an efficient approach for the preparation of oxazolidinones from CO2, primary (aliphatic/aromatic) amines and 1,2-dichloroethane (or its derivatives) catalyzed by DBU organo-superbase was achieved with yields of 47–97% under mild conditions (80–100 °C, 12 h, 1.0 MPa CO2). Control experiments demonstrated that the formation of an ion-pair carbamate salt intermediate IS-B derived from the reaction of CO2, DBU (catalyst) and an amine (substrate) was the key step for this three-component reaction. The available DBU–amine–CO2 adduct intermediate (like IS-B-2) with fair stability will evolve into the thermodynamically stable product oxazolidinones upon attack of 1,2-dichloroethane (or its derivatives), along with the regeneration of the DBU catalyst. Alternatively, the decomposition of the DBU–aryl amine–CO2 adduct (like IS-B-1) with relatively poor stability also could result in the competitive substitution reaction of 1,2-dichloroethane (or its derivatives) with the aryl amine. This work provides insights into synergetic CO2-activation by the DBU-catalyst and a nucleophilic amine-substrate via the formation of robust carbamate salt intermediates responsible for the final production of oxazolidinones.