Formation of methyl acrylate from CO₂ and ethylene via methylation of nickelalactones

Since more than 20 years metallacyclic nickel carboxylates ("nickela-lactones") are discussed as potential catalytic pathway towards the synthesis of acrylic acid from ethylene and CO₂. The entire catalytic process has to date never been realized experimentally. The main challenge of this coupling reaction is the elimination of acrylate from the metallic species due to the high bond dissociation energies of the Ni-O-moieties. The breakthrough of our work presented in the poster is the in-situ methylation with a subsequent b-hydride-transfer starting from the nickela-lactone resulting in the desired liberation of methyl acrylate.