Novel heterogeneous bi-functional catalysts bearing tin or zinc inserted as single sites within the silica architecture acting as acid centres and decorated with imidazolium moieties as the nucleophile source were successfully synthesized. The materials were extensively characterized via various techniques including N 2 physisorption, solid state nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and adsorption microcalorimetry. The solids were tested as catalysts for the conversion of carbon dioxide, selecting the synthesis of styrene carbonate as the target reaction.Both materials exhibited improved performances compared to the analogous solids functionalized with the sole imidazolium salt as well as to other materials reported in the literature. The Sn-based catalyst displayed excellent conversion also in the presence of various epoxides. In all experiments the bifunctional solid allowed reducing the reaction temperature below 150 C. In the presence of glycidol the temperature was decreased down to 30 C. The short synthesis protocol of the heterogeneous catalysts, together with the 100% atom economy of the target reaction and the low reaction temperature, make the entire process highly sustainable. Moreover, the Sn-based catalyst was stable under the selected reaction conditions and reusable for multiple catalytic cycles.

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Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) have been employed as molecular building blocks for the synthesis of imidazolium cross‐linked networks, to be used as heterogeneous catalysts for the conversion of carbon dioxide into cyclic carbonates. Two hybrid materials with different nucleophilic species (bromide and iodide) have been prepared and characterized by means of elemental analysis, 13C and 29Si solid‐state NMR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and IR spectroscopy. The solids were tested as the sole catalyst under metal‐ and solvent‐free reaction conditions showing full selectivity toward the formation of cyclic carbonates. High turnover number (TON) and productivity values, up to 5502 and 1081 respectively for glycidol conversion at 100 °C and up to 4942 and 1122 for epichlorohydrin conversion at 150 °C after 3 h, were obtained. Such outstanding productivity values were ascribed to the optimal organic/inorganic (i. e., imidazolium moiety/POSS support) weight ratio. The recyclability of the materials was successfully verified for five consecutive runs allowing their consideration as promising candidates for continuous flow technologies.

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In this contribution, we have reported our study on the fine-tuned design and synthesis of new POLITAGs-Pd0 (POLymeric Ionic TAG) catalytic systems with the intention of defining highly efficient heterogeneous palladium catalysts stabilized by ionic tags able to operate at a very low loading while being fully recoverable/reusable. By varying both the support and the ratio between the metal and immobilized ionic tag, we have accessed five different heterogeneous catalytic systems that have been fully characterized (EA, XPS, TEM, and HR-TEM) to investigate their morphological differences. The catalytic efficiency of the newly prepared POLITAGs-Pd0 materials was then tested and compared in the representative Mizoroki–Heck cross-coupling reaction, a universally investigated and widely useful process. A close correlation between the catalyst support and catalytic performances has been highlighted. The best system POLITAG-Pd0-HM features a high TOF value (26,786 h–1), affording the final products in high isolated yields by using as little as only 0.0007 mol % of Pd. Moreover, this high catalytic activity coupled with the use of γ-valerolactone (GVL) as a green reaction medium has led to the definition of a very efficient waste-minimized protocol. The newly designed catalyst has been utilized in the representative synthesis of Amiloxate, a widely used sunscreen agent, that could be prepared with negligible metal contamination and very low E-factor.