Recent advances in cooperative activation of CO₂ and N₂O by bimetallic coordination complexes or binuclear reaction pathways

The gaseous small molecules, CO2 and N2O, play important roles in climate change and ozone layer depletion, and they hold promise as underutilized reagents and chemical feedstocks. However, productive transformations of these heteroallenes are difficult to achieve because of their inertness. In nature, these gases are cycled through ecological systems by metalloenzymes featuring multimetallic active sites that employ cooperative mechanisms. Thus, cooperative bimetallic chemistry is an important strategy for synthetic systems, as well. In this Perspective, recent advances (since 2010) in cooperative activation of CO2 and N2O are reviewed, including examples involving s-block, p-block, d-block, and f-block metals and different combinations thereof.