The chemical fixation of CO2 into high value-added
cyclic
carbonates is of significant potential and sustainability to address
the energy and ecological issues. [HDBU]Br@P-DD-m/n, a series of porous
organic polymer-supported ionic liquids (PSILs), were fabricated in
this work through a one-pot four-component reaction of DMAEMA, DVB,
4-bromobutyric acid, and DBU. The formation of [HDBU]Br and construction
of the P-DD polymer network proceeded concurrently with the support
of the in situ-formed IL being achieved simultaneously. Characterization
of the PSILs by IR, ICP, BET, SEM, and TGA etc. showed that the as-prepared
catalysts possessed versatile hierarchical porosity with varying ionic
densities and excellent thermostability. The porosity of the copolymer
skeleton was found to be affected by the accompanying formation of
[HDBU]Br. The PSILs were then evaluated as catalysts for the cycloaddition
reaction of CO2 with epoxides, among which [HDBU]Br@P-DD-4/1
showed the optimal performance under atmospheric pressure and solvent-/cocatalyst-free
conditions (95% yield and 99% selectivity for CO2 cycloaddition
with epichlorohydrin). By correlating the performance and structures
of the catalysts, the synergistic effect of the tertiary amine, [HDBU]Br,
and pore distribution was demonstrated. In addition, the catalyst
was found to be applicable in synthesizing a range of differently
substituted carbonates in good to excellent yields. Finally, the catalyst
could be recovered readily and good catalytic activity was still observed
after use for 6 runs. The work not only provided an active, reusable,
and metal-free heterogeneous catalyst for the fixation of CO2 into cyclic carbonates but also developed a facile one-step multicomponent
strategy for constructing PSIL catalysts, which would be promising
to find wide applications in catalysis and organic synthesis field.