Efficient conversion of epoxides and CO<sub>2</sub> into cyclic carbonates by employing organocatalysts under mild conditions is an attractive research topic. Although various organocatalysts have been reported to be used for the synthesis of carbonates, highly active, tunable, and bifunctional organocatalysts remain scarce. Herein, we report a new halide bearing a benzamide moiety as a hydrogen bond donor catalyst to facilitate cycloaddition reaction of epoxide and CO<sub>2</sub> under comparatively mild conditions. The structural effects on the catalytic activity were scrutinized, which includes tunable substituents, the distance between functional groups, and counter anions. The experimental result indicated that the catalyst of the introduction of the bis-meta-substitutions on an aromatic ring exhibited excellent activity for converting epichlorohydrin into the cyclic carbonate under atmospheric pressure at 25–70 °C. Fifteen terminal epoxides and three internal epoxides were converted into corresponding cyclic carbonates in a moderate to high isolated yield. A reasonable activation mechanism was proposed and validated via using control experiments and NMR titrations. In addition, the good recyclability in the experiment proves that the halide is a sustainable green organic catalyst.

Monodentate H-bond donor bifunctional catalyst in fixation of atmospheric pressure carbon dioxide into cyclic carbonates

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.