Efficient heterogeneous functionalized polymer ionic liquid catalyst for the synthesis of ethylene carbonate via the coupling of carbon dioxide with ethylene oxide

Abstract

A series of functionalized polymer ionic liquids (PILs) were synthesized and immobilized onto a 4 Å molecular sieve. The catalytic activity of the resulting heterogeneous catalyst toward the synthesis of ethylene carbonate (EC) via the cycloaddition reaction of ethylene oxide (EO) and CO₂ was studied. The effects of the reaction conditions such as reaction temperature, pressure, time, and the amount of catalyst used, were systematically investigated. A high yield of EC and excellent selectivity could be obtained under optimized conditions. The catalyst is thermally stable and shows good reusability. Based on the experimental results, a plausible reaction mechanism has been proposed for the catalytic reaction.