Zn(ii) assisted synthesis of porous salen as an efficient heterogeneous scaffold for capture and conversion of CO2

Abstract

We have designed a unique strategy to obtain a zinc-salen functionalized porous polymer (Zn@SBMMP) with high zinc content (15.3 wt%) by an easy one-step, cost effective and scalable process, which shows unprecedented catalytic efficiency in the CO₂ fixation reaction via cycloaddition of CO₂ with epoxides. We hypothesize that a high density of Zn-Schiff base/salen units present in the porous polymer network is responsible for the exceptionally high catalytic performance of Zn@SBMMP.