The present review deals with the recent achievements and impressive potential applications of microwave (MW) heating to promote heterogeneous reactions under gas pressure. The high versatility of the latest generation of professional reactors combines extreme reaction conditions with safer and more efficient protocols. The double aims of this survey are to provide a panoramic snapshot of MW-assisted organic reactions with gaseous reagents, in particular CO and CO₂, and outline future applications. Stubborn and time-consuming carbonylation-like heterogeneous reactions, which have not yet been studied under dielectric heating, may well find an outstanding ally in the present protocol.
Keywords: CO carbonylation; CO2 insertion; gas pressure; heterogeneous phase; microwave-assisted organic reactions.