A series of cobalt
complexes are presented as effective catalysts
for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from epoxides and CO2. The catalytic potentials of the cobalt complexes, in combination
with tetrabutylammonium bromide, have been demonstrated to solve some
challenges in the synthesis of cyclic carbonates, including the room-temperature
conversion of terminal epoxides and activation-challenging substrates
such as internal epoxides and fatty acid derived epoxides. A key factor
in the success of the strategy is the use of cobalt complexes that
are prepared on the basis of the trans effect of
hybrid ligands. The trans effect between N-heterocyclic
carbenes and acetylacetone has been proved by a number of spectroscopic
measurements, including UV–vis, ESI-MS, EPR, and in situ FT-IR
and by DFT calculations; these support the notion that acetylacetone
prefers to dissociate from the cobalt center, which will result in
one coordination site for the activation of a substrate molecule at
the cobalt atom and thus give rise to high reactivity.