Anion effect controlling the selectivity in the zinc-catalysed copolymerisation of CO₂ and cyclohexene oxide

• Sait Elmas,
• Muhammad Afzal Subhani,
• Walter Leitner and
• Thomas E. Müller

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 42–49, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.7

• copolymerisation reaction. Keywords: anion effect; carbon dioxide; CO2 chemistry; copolymerisation; polyethercarbonate; zinc catalyst; Introduction The fixation of carbon dioxide (CO2) into polymers [1][2][3] provides highly promising options for the utilization of CO2 [4][5][6][7]. The copolymerisation of CO2

• analysis of the polymer obtained with catalyst 1 revealed that a polyethercarbonate characterised by surprisingly long polyether segments interspaced by carbonate groups was obtained (ratio of carbonate to ether moieties m/n 4.5/95.5, Table 2, entry 1). This is in agreement with a relatively small

• spectra (Figure 2) revealed a profile of epoxide consumption consistent with a first order reaction in both CO2 and epoxide. The initial rate for the consumption of CHO was 5.03 molCHO.(molcat.h)−1. Ether and carbonate linkages in the polyethercarbonate product were formed in parallel in a ratio of 9.8