POSS-based ionic polymer catalyzed the conversion of CO2 with epoxides to cyclic carbonates under solvent- and cocatalyst-free conditions at ambient pressure

A series of polymers are simply synthesized by the copolymerization of vinyl functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) with vinylimidazole based linker by modulating the molar ratio of two monomers. The synthesized POSS-based polymers are capable of catalyzing the cycloaddition reaction of CO2 with a variety of epoxides at atmospheric pressure without solvent and co-catalyst, producing cyclic carbonates with conversion up to 97.1 %. Noteworthy, the reaction kinetics studies have demonstrated that the POSS-based polymers are able to significantly reduce the activation energy of cycloaddition reactions of CO2. In addition, as a heterogenerous catalysts, the POSS-based polymer can be recovered and recycled 5 times without reducing catalytic performance.