Aliphatic carboxylic acid as a hydrogen-bond donor for converting CO2 and epoxide into cyclic carbonate under mild conditions.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Wang, Zheng; Wang, Yajun; Xie, Qianjie; Fan, Zhiying; Shen, Yehua
- Source
- New Journal of Chemistry. 6/7/2021, Vol. 45 Issue 21, p9403-9408. 6p.
- Subject
- *CARBOXYLIC acids
*PROPYLENE oxide
*STERIC hindrance
*ACETIC acid
*EPOXY compounds
*CARBONATE minerals
*CARBONATES
- Language
- ISSN
- 1144-0546
The coupling of CO2 and epoxides is a promising way to reduce atmospheric carbon by converting it into value-added cyclic carbonate. Pursuing efficient catalysts is highly attractive for the title reaction. Herein, we developed simple and inexpensive catalyst systems of aliphatic carboxylic acids as the hydrogen-bond donor (HBD) and quaternary ammonium halides as the nucleophile to catalyze the CO2-epoxide coupling reaction with high efficiency and selectivity under mild conditions (80 °C and 4 bar CO2). The high activity of this catalyst system is retained even under ambient conditions. The effects of the acidity and steric hindrance of acids on the catalysis of CO2-epoxide coupling were systematically investigated. Lastly, the reaction mechanism was deduced and its rationality was further reinforced by exploring the interaction between a representative system AA/TBAB (acetic acid/tetrabutylammonium bromide) and propylene oxide (PO). The study of aliphatic carboxylic acids/quaternary ammonium halides provides a new way to design catalyst systems for the title reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]