Carbene formation in ionic liquids: spontaneous, induced, or prohibited?

We present a theoretical study of carbene formation from the 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ionic liquid in the absence and presence of CO2 in gas and liquid phase. Although CO2 physisorption constitutes a precursory step of chemisorption (the CO2's reaction with carbenes, which forms from cations via proton abstraction by anions), it also enables a very stable CO2-anion associate. However, this counteracts the chemical absorption by reducing the basicity of the anion and the electrophilicity of the CO2, which is reflected by charge transfer.