Polymer immobilized [Mg@PS-anthra] complex: An efficient recyclable heterogeneous catalyst for the incorporation of carbon dioxide into oxiranes at atmospheric pressure and Knoevenagel condensation reaction under solvent free condition

Abstract

Chemical fixation of CO2 into the organic molecules is very challenging from the perspective of greenhouse gas consumption and manufacturing of chemicals with C1 backbone. The process was developed with the synthesis of an efficient polystyrene functionalized Magnesium-anthranilic acid complex (Mg@PS-anthra). The catalytic system was successfully explored as a heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates by CO2 fixation at atmospheric pressure and Knoevenagel condensation reaction under room temperature solvent free condition. The material was thoroughly characterized by diffuse reflectance UV-vis, FTIR spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) techniques. The catalytic pathway has been investigated for the cyclo-addition reaction of epoxides using atmospheric CO2 accompanied by the Knoevenagel condensation reaction with a variety of different aldehydes over cost effective environmental friendly Mg-catalyst. This is attributed to its high catalytic activity, recovery simplicity and excellent five times recycling efficiency; without any substantial decrease in catalytic performance.