Experimental investigation of improved graphene oxide as an efficient catalyst for the sustainable chemical fixation of CO2 with epoxides

Abstract

Herein, we improved the synthesis procedure of graphene oxide with the optimized catalytic properties as a promising catalyst for the cycloaddition of CO2 to epoxides at mild conditions. Different operating conditions such as reaction temperature, pressure, TBAB/epoxy molar ratio, various nucleophiles (co-catalyst), reaction time and catalyst weight percentage were studied in this reaction. In addition, different epoxides were converted at 80 °C, under optimized conditions including a catalyst loading of 3.2 wt.%, reaction pressure of 1 bar, TBAB/epoxy molar ratio of 1/40 for 12 h with isolated yields of carbonate up to 98 %. In addition, the kinetic of the reaction was investigated at different reaction temperatures by calculating the reaction rate constant and activation energy (based on Arrhenius equation). Furthermore, the best catalyst is investigated at atmospheric bubbling conditions and model gas of post-combustion gas stream at 80 °C. The obtained results revealed that, the proposed graphene oxide has a high tendency for the conversion of carbon dioxide without post-processing of CO2 containing effluent gas streams.