Synthesis and characterization of zwitterionic carbon dioxide fixing reagents

The synthesis of three amine-based carbon dioxide fixing reagents is presented. The reagents were designed so that they would be able to bind CO2 reversibly through the formation of the well known carbamates that was stabilized through forming a zwitterion. CO2 fixing experiments were performed with 13CO2 labeling and medium pressure NMR. The experiments showed that two of the three reagents were able to form carbamates and thus bind CO2. In addition we investigated this particular class of molecules for the possible formation of neutrally charged spiro compounds and we show that these did not form under the conditions studied.