Excellent Catalytic Performance Research Articles

Au-TiO2 nanoparticles enabled catalytic treatment of oil and gas produced water in slurry and vacuum membrane distillation systems

Produced water (PW) treatment and reuse provide a promising alternative to address freshwater scarcity and reduce the environmental impacts associated with PW disposal. Efficient treatment of PW is challenging due to its complex matrix and hypersalinity. This study developed innovative gold-doped titania (Au-TiO2) nanoparticles to enable effective treatment of PW collected from the Permian Basin with salinity of ∼118 g/L. The mechanisms of removing organics and ammonia in PW in slurry and vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) systems were investigated via thermocatalysis, photocatalysis, and photo-thermocatalysis. Photocatalysis and photo-thermocatalysis were found more effective for organic removal than thermocatalysis. A baseline study using glucose as a representative of easily degradable organic carbon showed that thermocatalysis and photocatalysis mineralized 23.2 % and 93.1 % glucose, respectively. However, photo-thermocatalysis and thermocatalysis degraded only 17.4 % and 7.5 % dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and 56.2 % and 49.2 % NH3-N in PW, respectively. Au-TiO2 coating on ceramic membranes improved the distillate flux of photo-thermocatalytic membrane distillation (PMD) compared to no catalysts coating in VMD (7.14 versus 6.75 kg per hour per m2). Both PMD and VMD rejected >99.9 % of salts and >96 % DOC, and PMD had slightly higher DOC and salt removal rates. In contrast, normalized permeate flux using pristine membranes (hydrophobically modified without catalysts coating) decreased to zero after 29 h of operation while normalized flux with TiO2-coated membranes under UV on and UV off were 57.5 % and 53.7 % on average, which is much lower than that with Au-TiO2 coated membranes in both UV on (91.3 %) and UV off (88.1 %) cases, indicating Au-TiO2 coating significantly improved membrane anti-fouling propensity and durability during treatment of complex PW. Targeted analysis of three groups of petroleum hydrocarbons and 70 volatile organic compounds showed that only 2-butanone and acetone were detected in the distillates with removal efficiencies of 80 % for 2-butanone in both PMD and VMD, and acetone was removed by 75.4 % in PMD and 69.2 % in VMD. Au-TiO2 nanoparticles demonstrated excellent catalytic performance for PW treatment in slurry and immobilized PMD systems.

Photoinduced Ordered Growth of Copper-Doped Polyaniline Nanotubes: A Method to Improve the Catalytic Activity for C-N Coupling Reactions.

Polyaniline-supported metal nanoparticles (M@PANIs) have been widely employed as catalysts for organic reactions. Traditionally, the catalytic activities of the materials can be improved by introducing functional groups onto the aniline monomers, but it may enhance the catalyst cost and reduce the production yield of the material. This work reports a new strategy for improving the catalytic activity of M@PANIs. It was found that induced by visible light in the presence of a polymeric carbon nitride catalyst and copper dopant, the oxidative polymerization of simple aniline occurred slowly and orderly to produce the copper-doped polyaniline nanotubes. The unique tubular structure protected the catalytically active Cu(I) inside and endowed even more sufficient contact of the catalytic sites with reactants so that the material exhibited excellent catalytic performances in C-N coupling reactions.

A novel porous liquid for enhanced CO2 uptake to improve conversion efficiency

AbstractPorous liquids (PLs) with unique porous frameworks and good flow properties can achieve coupling enhancement for CO2 capture and conversion. In this paper, a series of novel PLs were designed and synthesized using UiO‐66 as the framework and novel bi‐cationic ionic liquids (ILs) as an excluded solvent. The prepared PLs showed significant improvement in CO2 uptake capacity over ILs at different pressures and exhibited excellent CO2 catalytic conversion performance, exceeding the sum of the effects of ILs and UiO‐66. Especially at low pressure, the PLs still showed excellent catalytic performance, but the catalytic performance of the corresponding ILs was significantly reduced, which was due to the rapid adsorption and conversion of CO2 by the porous framework of UiO‐66 to improve the CO2 uptake and transfer efficiency within the ILs, thus achieving coupling enhancement. It can provide a new way to realize the efficient conversion of CO2 under milder conditions.

Surface oxygen vacancies induced by cu-doping in hexagonal ZnMn2O4 nanoplates for high efficiency photothermocatalytic oxidation of toluene

The exploitation of efficient and stable photothermal catalyst for the deep mineralization of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is crucial and challenging. Herein, a photothermal catalyst with abundant oxygen defects was prepared for the first time via Cu-doped ZnMn2O4 hexagonal nanoplate. Experimental characterization results reveal that Cu doping enhances not only the ZnMn2O4 defect contents but also the light absorption and thermal conversion ability of ZnMn2O4. Compared to the undoped ZnMn2O4 (ZMO), the ZnMn2O4 with optimal Cu doping amount (ZMO-4Cu) exhibits excellent photothermal catalytic performance (94% toluene conversion and 87% toluene mineralization) and good resistance to low concentration SO2 under full-spectrum light irradiation. Experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations jointly demonstrated that the oxygen vacancies of ZMO-4Cu surface are more conducive to the adsorption of O2, effectively reduce the oxygen dissociation energy of ZMO-4Cu, thus generating abundant active oxygen species and improving the photothermal catalytic activity for toluene oxidation. In situ IR experiments disclosed that photothermal catalysis is more conducive to the toluene deep oxidation than thermal catalysis. This work provides new insights for the design of high efficiency photothermal catalysis for the deep oxidation of VOCs.

Magnetic PdNi@CN as a versatile catalyst for Suzuki reaction and 4-nitrophenol reduction

Palladium-based non-homogeneous catalysts have attracted considerable attention due to their high catalytic efficiency and adaptability. However, they still face the challenges of long reaction routes and poor cycling stability. An economical, efficient, stable and environmentally friendly catalyst PdNi@CN was prepared by loading nickel-palladium nanoparticles onto nitrogen-doped carbon functionalized carrier material. The catalyst was thoroughly characterized using XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM, VSM, and ICP. PdNi@CN could efficiently catalyze the Suzuki coupling reaction (Iodobenzene and phenylboronic acid, 97 % yield, TON (Turnover Number)=1.62 × 102, TOF (Turnover Frequency)=2.43 × 102 h-1). Furthermore, PdNi@CN exhibited high activity in the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP, Kapp=8.01 × 10–2 s-1). After five cycles of catalysis, the conversion of 4-NP still reached 95 %, demonstrating the excellent structural stability and high catalytic performance of PdNi@CN.

Synthetic Pt-Fe(OH) x catalysts by one-pot method for CO catalytic oxidation.

Catalytic oxidation is used to control carbon monoxide (CO) emissions from industrial exhaust. In this work, The prepared Pta-Fe(OH) x catalysts (x represents the mass fraction of Pt loading (%), a = 0.5, 1 and 2) by the one-pot reduction method exhibited excellent CO catalytic activity, with the Pt2-Fe(OH) x catalyst, 70% and ∼100% CO conversion was achieved at 30°C and 60°C, respectively. In addition, the Pt2-Fe(OH) x catalyst also showed excellent H2O resistance and hydrothermal stability in comparison to the Pt2/Fe(OH) x catalyst prepared by impregnation method. Characterization results showed that the excellent catalytic performance of the catalysts was mainly attributed to the abundant surface oxygen species and Pt0 the presence of H2O, which promoted the catalytic reaction of CO, and Density functional theory (DFT) calculation showed that this was mainly attributed to the catalytic activity of the hydroxyl (-OH) species on Pt2-Fe(OH) x surface, which could easily oxidize CO to -COOH, which could be further decomposed into CO2 and H atoms. This study provides valuable insights into the design of high-efficiency non-precious metal catalysts for CO catalytic oxidation catalysts with high efficiency.

Covalent Bonding of Salen Metal Complexes with Pyrene Chromophores to Porous Polymers for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution.

The development of low-cost and efficient photocatalysts to achieve water splitting to hydrogen (H2) is highly desirable but remains challenging. Herein, we design and synthesize two porous polymers (Co-Salen-P and Fe-Salen-P) by covalent bonding of salen metal complexes and pyrene chromophores for photocatalytic H2 evolution. The catalytic results demonstrate that the two polymers exhibit excellent catalytic performance for H2 generation in the absence of additional noble-metal photosensitizers and cocatalysts. Particularly, the H2 generation rate of Co-Salen-P reaches as high as 542.5 μmol g-1 h-1, which is not only 6 times higher than that of Fe-Salen-P but also higher than a large amount of reported Pt-assisted photocatalytic systems. Systematic studies show that Co-Salen-P displays faster charge separation and transfer efficiencies, thereby accounting for the significantly improved photocatalytic activity. This study provides a facile and efficient way to fabricate high-performance photocatalysts for H2 production.

In Situ Hydroxide Growth over Nickel-Iron Phosphide with Enhanced Overall Water Splitting Performances.

In this work, three dimensional (3D) self-supported Ni-FeOH@Ni-FeP needle arrays with core-shell heterojunction structure are fabricated via in situ hydroxide growth over Ni-FeP surface. The as-prepared electrodes show an outstanding oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance, only requiring the low overpotential of 232mV to reach 200mAcm-2 with the Tafel slop of 40mVdec-1. For overall water splitting, an alkaline electrolyzer with these electrodes only requires a cell voltage of 2.14V to reach 1Acm-2. Mechanistic investigations for such excellent electrocatalytic performances are utilized by in situ Raman spectroscopy in conjunction with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The computation results present that Ni-FeOH@Ni-FeP attains better intrinsic conductivity and the D-band center (close to that of the ideal catalyst), thus giving superior excellent catalytic performances. Likewise, the surface Ni-FeOH layer can improve the structural stability of Ni-FeP cores and attenuate the eventual formation of irreversible FeOOH products. More importantly, the appearance of FeOOH intermediates can effectively decrease the energy barrier of NiOOH intermediates, and then rapidly accelerate the sluggish reaction dynamics, as well as further enhance the electrocatalytic activities, reversibility and cycling stability.

Theory-driven design of graphene schiff base iron nanocomplex as catalyst for composite propellant

New graphene Schiff base iron nanocomplexes (S-792-Fe, S-550-Fe, and S-590-Fe) were designed and fabricated based on investigations of reactions mechanisms of AP pyrolysis, structural analysis of new materials and simulation results of quantum mechanics to deal with the long-standing contradiction between safety and performance for composite propellent combustion catalyst. By taking traditional catalyst Catocene as the benchmark, the S-550-Fe nanocomplexes exhibited competitive catalytic performances, much better anti-migration properties and significantly reduced impact and electrostatic sensitivities. After adding S-550-Fe, the burning rate of propellant enhanced from 13.87 to 19.77 mm s−1 at 15 MPa, and the impact and electrostatic sensitivities are improved to 50.2 cm and 172.12 mJ, respectively. The excellent catalytic performance of S-550-Fe is closely related to its molecular structure, which is manifested by an increase in charge density and a decrease in NH3 oxidation energy barriers. The promotion effects of S-550-Fe on desorption and oxidation of NH3 from the surface of AP is conducive to the rapid and complete pyrolysis of AP, which is reflected in the improvement of combustion rate and temperature gradient. The theory-driven design mode of this work may provide new pathways to tune combustion behaviors of composite propellants from the view of molecular-level insights.

Functionalized sea urchin-like MnO2 with chitosan to load CaCo layered double hydroxides for advanced catalytic oxidation of antibiotics through activation of peroxymonosulfate

Novel composite catalysts based on the functionalization of sea urchin-like MnO2 with chitosan (CS) to load CaCo layered double hydroxides were prepared by a simple hydrothermal method, and the physicochemical properties of the resulting MnO2@CS-CaCo LDHs were analyzed by various characterization methods. Then advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) were constructed based on MnO2@CS-CaCo LDHs through activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to degrade ciprofloxacin (CIP), norfloxacin (NOR) and sulfamethoxazole (SMX) in water. Sea urchin-like MnO2 modified by CS created a unique interface and a variety of active functional groups for the loading of CaCo LDHs where MnO2 particles were uniformly attached to the surface of CaCo LDHs. The results showed that the MnO2@CS-CaCo LDHs composites had excellent catalytic performances compared with monomeric MnO2, MnO2@CS and CaCo LDHs, and the enhanced catalytic performances were mainly due to the synergistic effects between LDHs, CS and MnO2. Under optimal experimental conditions, the removal efficiencies of CIP and NOR reached up to 96.45 % and 96.58 % within 20 min, respectively, and the removal of SMX was 93.12 % within 30 min. Quenching experiments demonstrated that 1O2 was the main active oxygen species for catalytic degradation through a non-radical pathway. In addition, the degradation efficiency of NOR was still as high as 93.78 % after the 10th cycle of degradation experiments, indicating that the composite catalysts had excellent reproducibility and stability. Finally, the activation mechanisms of MnO2@CS-CaCo LDHs/PMS and degradation pathways of SMX were proposed. The catalytic performances of MnO2@CS-CaCo LDHs/PMS for removal of three drugs in actual water bodies were further evaluated their practical application ability.

Synthesis of Au@Pd core–shell nanoparticles by ultrafine bubbles and ultrasound without capping and reducing agents

Abstract This paper, for the first time, reports on the synthesis of Au@Pd core–shell nanoparticles in the absence of any capping and reducing agents by ultrafine bubbles and ultrasound. The mean diameter of the bimetallic core–shell nanoparticles was controlled by the ultrafine bubble concentration during the synthesis. Pd’s shell thickness also varied with the concentration of Pd(II) ions. These Au@Pd core–shell nanoparticles showed excellent catalytic performance due to the pure surface without any capping and reducing agents.

Deep Eutectic Solvent-Assisted Corrosion Boosting Bulk FeCoNiCrMo High-Entropy Alloys as Highly Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction Catalyst.

The key to enhancing water electrolysis efficiency lies in selecting highly efficient catalysts. Currently, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) are utilized in electrocatalysis applications owing to their diverse elemental composition, disordered elemental distribution, and the high solubility of each element, endowing them with excellent catalytic performance. The experiments were conducted using isoatomic FeNiCrMo HEA as a precursor, with a high-activity three-dimensional nanoporous structure rapidly synthesized via electrochemical one-step dealloying in a choline chloride-thiourea (ChCl-TU) deep eutectic solvent (DES). The results indicate that the dealloyed Fe20Co20Ni20Cr20Mo20 HEA mainly consists of two phases: face-centered cubic and σ phases. The imbalance in the distribution of elements in these two phases leads to quite different corrosion speeds with the FCC phase being preferentially corroded. Furthermore, synergistic electron coupling between surface atoms in the three-dimensional nanoporous structure strengthens the behavior of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). At a current density of 40 mA cm-2, the overpotential after dealloying decreased to 370 mV, demonstrating excellent stability. The technique demonstrated in this work provides a novel approach to improve the catalytic activity of OER.

Enhancing stability of mononuclear Pt atoms via chloride-to-bromide ligand exchange for hydrosilylation reaction

Single atom catalysts (SACs) offer high atom efficiency with highly selective reaction pathway. Various strategies have been developed to synthesize SACs, among which thermally stable metal centers are usually in high oxidation while they are susceptible to facile sintering in reduced state or under reducing conditions. One of the strategies developed very recently to achieve stable zero valent metal atoms is based on the selection of ligands with moderate coordination strength with the metal center. In this work, the crucial importance of ligand to the stability of single Pt0 atoms is investigated. While HCl and diether have been found to be able to stabilize single Pt0 atoms by forming Pt1@HCl adducts, HBr coordinated Pt single atom (Pt1@HBr) obtained by simply exchanging HCl with HBr shows increased thermal stability over the Pt1@HCl under H2 atmosphere at elevated temperature, as evidenced by DRFITs of CO chemisorption and HRTEM. This work offers a facile approach to tune the stability of Pt single atoms while keeping the structure of active sites of single atom center to achieve excellent catalytic performance, using hydrosilylation in the demonstrative studies.

Layered perovskite-derived Ni/La2-2xPr2xO3 catalysts for hydrogen production via auto-thermal reforming of acetic acid

Auto-thermal reforming (ATR) is an effective route to extract hydrogen from acetic acid (HAc) from bio-oil. Nickel-based catalysts were found active for conversion of HAc via the ATR process. However, the main concerns, such as carbon deposition and sintering, led to deactivation of catalysts. Herein, to address these issues, a series of (La,Pr)2NiO4 layered perovskites and the derived catalysts of Ni/La2-2xPrxO3 were prepared, and evaluated by ATR. It was found that with Pr entering the La2O3 lattice, the reduction temperature of Ni oxide was decreased with improved dispersion of Ni0; meanwhile, lattice defects were found within La2-2xPr2xO3, and oxygen vacancies were formed with more reactive oxygen species, promoting gasification of coking precursors. The lower formation energy of oxygen vacancy over Pr-doped La2O3 support was further proved by DFT, confirming the improved oxygen vacancies. Therefore, the Ni0·8La1.35Pr0.73O3.92±δ catalyst exhibited excellent catalytic performance along with a stable HAc conversion near 100% and a hydrogen yield around 2.49 mol-H2/mol-HAc, while no coking was detected.

Promoting electroreduction of nitrite to ammonia over electron-deficient Pd modulated by rectifying Schottky contacts

Electrochemical nitrite reduction reaction (NO2−RR) is a potential sustainable route for regulating the nitrogen cycle and ambient ammonia (NH3) synthesis. However, it remains a challenge to precisely regulate the reaction pathways and inhibit competing reactions (e.g. hydrogenolysis) for efficient and selective NH3 production in an aqueous solution environment. Here, we utilize the Schottky barrier-induced surface electric field to construct high-density electron-deficient Pd nanoparticles by modulating the N content in the carbon carrier to promote the enrichment and immobilization of NO2− on the electrode surface, which ensures the ultimate selectivity for NH3. With these properties, Pd@N0.14C with the highest N content achieved excellent catalytic performance for the reduction of NO2− to NH3 with the 100% Faraday efficiency at −0.5 and −0.6 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) for NH3 production, which was significantly better than Pd/C and Pd@NxC samples with lower N content. This study opens new avenues for rational construction of efficient electrocatalysts for nitrite removal and NH3 electrosynthesis.

Resourcification of CO2 to high-value-added glycerol carbonate by ZnAlCe composite oxides with frustrated Lewis pairs

Zinc-aluminum-cerium composite oxide (ZnAlCe) catalysts were prepared by co-precipitation to catalyze the direct synthesis of glycerol carbonate (GC) from carbon dioxide (CO2) and glycerol. The characterization results showed that the lattice oxygen served as Lewis basic centers and Ce4+ served as Lewis acidic centers on Zn4AlCe catalyst, and frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) were formed due to the steric hindrance in the catalyst structure. CO2 was easily activated by FLPs because the acidic and basic centers of FLPs bound to the oxygen and carbon atoms of CO2, respectively. The experimental results indicated that Zn4AlCe catalyst presented excellent catalytic performance with good thermal stability and strong regeneration ability. Under the reaction conditions of 0.115 g catalyst, 12 h, 170 °C, 4.5 MPaCO2 and 5 mL acetonitrile dosage, the GC yield and selectivity were 28.9 % and 51.0 %, respectively. The GC yield is relatively high among similar catalysts reported so far, which lays the foundation for future industrial considerations.

Efficiently enhanced degradation for the organic pollutants over GO/BiOI/NiWO4 with Z-scheme heterojunction and DFT studies

In this work, a series GO/BiOI/NiWO4 (n%GBINWO, n=5, 10, 15, 20) were hydrothermally prepared and applied as photocatalysts for the degradation of organic dyes under ambient conditions. The physico-chemical and microstructure of the studied samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, TG-DTG, XPS, UV-Vis, EIS, and N2-adsorption. Compared with pure NiWO4, the photocatalytic activity of BiOI/NiWO4 and GO/BiOI/NiWO4 were obviously enhanced, and the highest photocatalytic efficiency of 10 %GBINWO was observed to be 98.59 % (methylene blue, MB) under the optimized conditions (catalyst weight of 30 mg, pH of 3, 3 h, 30 °C). The excellent catalytic performance of the 10 %GBINWO was due to the existence of interfacial heterojunction, which endows the ternary composite with the large visible light capacity and high charge separation efficiency. Importantly, after the hybrid model constructed with NiWO4 (-1 1 1) and BiOI (0 0 2) was optimized via DFT calculations, a newly-formed bond of I-Bi-O-M (Ni and W), which promoted the transportation of the photogenerated electrons through newly-formed bridge was observed. Furthermore, the difference in degradation efficiency of various organic pollutants was related to the steric hindrance as well as the molecular structure. Moreover, •O2− was also confirmed as the key active species for 10 %GBINWO catalyzing the degradation process. Besides, the Z-scheme heterojunction between BiOI and NiWO4 was confirmed by TD-DFT calculations.

Ammonia decomposition over La-doped Al2O3 supported Co catalyst

As the hydrogen source of carbon-free fuel cells, the key to realize the green and low-energy decomposition hydrogen production process is to select materials with excellent catalytic performance for ammonia dehydrogenation. In this study, the rare earth element lanthanum (La) was doped onto the surface of Al2O3 by the impregnation method. The aforementioned material was subsequently used as a new material for the synthesis of single metal Co catalysts that catalyzed ammonia decomposition. Various characterization techniques (XRD, HRTEM, N2 physical adsorption-desorption, ICP, XPS, SEM, H2-TPR) were employed to investigate the relationship between the structure and performance of Co/La–Al2O3 catalysts. The findings indicated that the 10Co/La(5)-Al2O3 catalyst was the most active. Under the conditions of 550 °C and 9000 mL h−1·gcat−1, the conversion of ammonia reached 90 %, and the yield of hydrogen reached 8.9 mmol·gcat−1·min−1. A perovskite-type metal oxide layer of LaAlO3 was generated on the surface of Al2O3 support after doping the appropriate amount of lanthanum (5 %), which directly affects the catalytic performance of the catalyst. The small amount of LaAlO3 optimized the strong interaction between the metal Co and the supports, thereby enhancing catalytic performance. While stabilizing the active component Co, XPS and H2-TPR also implied that the presence of La could enhance the electron transfer between the support and Co, as well as facilitate the desorption of nitrogen and hydrogen products, therefore, the low temperature activity of Co/La–Al2O3 catalyst can be improved. The ammonia decomposition efficiency of the catalyst doped with 5 % wt La was much higher than that of the catalyst without La incorporation. The simple modified support developed by us, which loads a monoatomic Co catalyst, provides a new approach for the development of high-activity transition metal catalysts.

Enhanced activation of persulfate by bimetal and nitrogen co-doped biochar for efficient degradation of refractory organic contaminants: The role of the second metal

The leaching of metal ions limits the application of Fe-biochar catalyst in activating persulfate (PS). In this work, Fe-M (M = Co, Cu) and nitrogen co-doped biochar (Fe-M@N-BC) were synthesized through impregnating bio-waste soybean straw to activate PS for the removal of various refractory organic contaminants (tetracycline (TC), oxytetracycline (OTC), methyl orange (MO) and rhodamine B (RhB)). The catalysts were characterized by XRD, XPS, Raman, BET, TEM, SEM, and the degradation mechanism was investigated through quenching experiments and EPR. The results indicated that the doping of second metal (Co, Cu) has a strong promoting effect on catalytic activity with the order of Co > Cu. Surprisingly, the removal rates of TC, OTC, RhB, MO by Fe–Co@N-BC reached 84.7 %, 90.3 %, 89.4 %, and 91 %, respectively. The excellent catalytic performance of Fe–Co@N-BC was mainly attributed to abundant pyridinic-N, larger specific surface area (270 m2 g−1) and the Co(II)/Co(III) redox cycle promoting the regeneration of Fe(II). Notably, the formation of Co7Fe3 alloy could inhibit the leaching of iron ions and Fe–Co@N-BC possessed excellent reusability. Additionally, non-radical (1O2) was the main active species in the Fe–Co@N-BC/PS system. Finally, the degradation pathway of MO was proposed by HPLC-MS analysis. This research work provided an insight into how to reasonably utilize biological waste to construct highly efficient and stable catalysts for pollutants degradation.

Imidazolium bromide substituted magnesium phthalocyanine polymers: New promising materials for CO2 conversion

The conversion of CO2 with epoxides into the corresponding cyclic carbonates represents a green approach to transform a waste into value-added products. To promote this conversion, a catalyst in needed. This study presents the synthesis of two cross-linked materials composed of magnesium phthalocyanine and imidazolium bromide moieties: MgPc-BIBI-Br and MgPc-SIBI-Br. Magnesium phthalocyanines are cost-effective and versatile catalysts, synthesized in high yield from low-cost precursors and can be easily modified for specific needs. Imidazolium bromide groups play a crucial role as well, acting as a nucleophile source essential to promote the ring-opening process of the epoxide. The materials have been extensively characterized through analytical and spectroscopic techniques and tested as catalysts in the conversion of epichlorohydrin into 4-chloromethyl-1,3-dioxalan-2-one. They both achieved excellent catalytic performance (maximal TON values of 3070 for MgPc-SIBI-Br and 1903 for MgPc-BIBI-Br) and recyclability (both recyclable at least for 4 cycles). The reported results represent an improvement if compared to similar materials already reported in the literature in which the addition of external nucleophilic species (e.g. TBAB, BMIM-Br, etc.) is needed. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first example in which imidazolium bromide and magnesium phthalocyanine moieties are combined in bifunctional polymeric materials that convert CO2 into cyclic carbonates via heterogeneous catalysis.