Low-Cost Polymer-Supported Quaternary Ammonium Salts as High-Efficiency Catalysts for Cycloaddition of CO2 to Epoxides

• Published in: Catalysis letters Vol. 142; no. 11; pp. 1376 - 1381
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yuan-Yuan, Chen, Lang, Yin, Shuang-Feng, Luo, Sheng-Lian, Au, Chak-Tong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.11.2012; Springer Nature; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Carbon dioxide; Carbonates; Catalysis; Catalysts; Chemical bonds; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemistry, Physical; Cycloaddition; Efficiency; Exact sciences and technology; General and physical chemistry; Industrial applications; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Ionic liquids; Organometallic Chemistry; Physical Chemistry; Physical Sciences; Polystyrene resins; Propylene oxide; Quaternary ammonium salts; Reaction time; Science & Technology; Selectivity; Theory of reactions, general kinetics. Catalysis. Nomenclature, chemical documentation, computer chemistry; Cyclic carbonate; Polymer-supported quaternary ammonium salts; Carbon dioxide; Epoxide; OXIDE; PROPYLENE CARBONATE; CHEMICAL FIXATION; CONVERSION; CYCLIC CARBONATES; IONIC LIQUIDS; CARBON-DIOXIDE; BASE; Catalytic reaction; Support; Industrial application; Polymer; Selectivity; Ionic liquid; Heterogeneous catalysis; Propene; Efficiency; Preparation; Oxirane(methyl); Reaction time; Styrene polymer; Carbonates; Catalyst
• ISSN: 1011-372X; 1572-879X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10562-012-0909-y

Polystyrene grafted with quaternary ammonium salts were obtained by direct quaternarization of chloromethylated polystyrene with N , N -dimethylethylamine, N , N -dimethylglycine (denoted as PS-QNS and PS-CQNS, respectively). These two polymer-supported ionic liquids were found to show high catalytic efficiency towards the cycloaddition of CO 2 to epoxides. The effects of catalyst amount, reaction temperature, initial CO 2 pressure, and reaction time on the yield of cyclic carbonates were investigated systematically. Under the optimal reaction conditions (150 °C, initial CO 2 pressure 2.0 MPa and 5 h), propylene carbonate yield and selectivity in the cycloaddition of CO 2 to propylene oxide over PS-CQNS were 96.2 and 99.3 % whereas those over PS-QNS were 97.9 and 99.5 %, respectively. It was observed that the reusability of PS-QNS was excellent. From the viewpoint of industrial application, PS-QNS is attractive in terms of catalytic efficiency, cost and simplicity in preparation. Graphical Abstract Polystyrene bearing quaternary ammonium salt ionic liquids (denoted as PS-QNS and PS-CQNS) were fabricated and evaluated for solventless synthesis of cyclic carbonates from CO 2 and epoxides. The catalysts are low in cost and simple to prepare, and show good activity, selectivity, stability and reusability towards the cycloaddition reaction.