Bifunctional Metal‐free Heterogeneous Catalyst for the Synthesis of Methanol and Diols from CO2 and Epoxide

Abstract Currently world is facing a serious environmental concern in the steady increase in the CO 2 concentration in air and this is directly related to climate change. Thus, successful utilization of CO 2 into valuable chemicals is one of our primary goals. Herein, we have successfully fabricated a porous organic polymer PDVTA‐1 via the free radical cross coupling between divinylbenzene and triallyl amine. This porous polymer is found to possess permanent porosity with a very high BET surface area of 915 m 2 g −1 . Furthermore, upon sulfonation PDVTA‐1 is found to be very active as a bifunctional catalyst with a high BET surface area of 477 m 2 g ‐1 and it efficiently catalyzes the synthesis of methanol and diols from CO 2 and respective epoxide under solvent‐free process and relatively milder reaction conditions. In this method 34% yield of methanol and 53% propylene glycol are produced from CO 2 and propylene oxide by using considerably mild reducing agent Et 3 SiH.