Nankai University developed a new type of cyclic carbonate catalyst

Nankai University researchers have used a new type of solid catalyst for the preparation of cyclic carbonates, which greatly simplifies the process, and the purity of the product can be as high as 99% without the need for separation and purification processes. This type of polymer-supported catalyst can achieve one-phase reaction and two-phase separation, which greatly reduces the production cost. This new process of cyclic carbonate has caused great concern in the industry.

The technical route for the new process of cyclic carbonates is to design and synthesize heterogeneous catalysts and homophilic carbon dioxide homogeneous catalysts. Supercritical carbon dioxide is used as a solvent to achieve direct separation and recycling of catalysts and products. This highly active solid catalyst can efficiently and highly selectively catalyze the reaction of epoxides with carbon dioxide to produce cyclic carbonates that can be recycled and reused. The technology is applied to a batch reactor, after the completion of the reaction, the catalyst and the product can be separated only by simple filtration; for a fixed bed reaction process, continuous production can be achieved. In the production process, using supercritical carbon dioxide as a reaction solvent instead of traditional organic solvents not only enables clean production, but also simplifies product separation and purification processes.

It is understood that cyclic carbonates, such as propylene carbonate, are highly efficient solvents and excellent extractants. They are stable, non-toxic, and do not corrode carbon steel equipment as a solvent. Its most important application is to remove carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide in natural gas, petroleum cracking gas, oilfield gas, synthetic ammonia shift gas, and has a significant effect. It can be used as an excellent medium for high-energy batteries and capacitors in the electronics industry, and can be used as a polymer solvent and plasticizer in the polymer industry. Only as an excellent medium for high-energy batteries and capacitors, the global demand will reach more than 2 million tons; it will be used as an auxiliary raw material for the production of dimethyl carbonate by the transesterification method, and the demand will reach several 100,000 tons. At present, the domestic production volume is only 1,000-2,000 tons, and the market gap is very large.

At present, green chemistry has become a hot spot in chemical research. The use of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas resources can reduce environmental impact. The new catalyst developed by Nankai University can utilize carbon dioxide and epoxide addition reaction to synthesize cyclic carbonate. This technology has broad application prospects.