A novel supported ionic liquid catalyst, GO-[DBU][Br] catalyzes cycloaddition of CO2 in a fixed-bed reactor

Abstract

Emissions of carbon dioxide can lead to the greenhouse effect, causing global warming and so on. conversion of carbon dioxide into high-value chemicals through catalysis, which is an effective method to successfully curb carbon emissions and prevent the greenhouse effect. Among them, CO2 chemical synthesis of cyclic carbonate is one of the important way. In this paper, a new type of supported ionic liquid catalyst (GO-[DBU][Br]) was synthesized by one-pot method. Subsequently, the GO-[DBU][Br] was applied to the cycloaddition reaction of CO2 in batch reaction and fixed bed continuous reaction, respectively. The stability of the catalyst was also explored, the GO-[DBU][Br] was easily separated and reused at least 5 times without significant loss of catalytic activity. The excellent catalytic performance comes from the synergistic effect of ionic liquid cations, halogenated anions, and a large number of oxygen-containing functional groups on the GO surface, a possible reaction mechanism was thus proposed. The study provides a safe, efficient, and industrial-scale continuous reaction system for CO2 utilization.