Aluminum salen complexes and tetrabutylammonium salts: a binary catalytic system for production of polycarbonates from CO2 and cyclohexene oxide.

A series of complexes of the form (salen)AlZ, where H2salen = N,N'-bis(salicylidene)-1,2-phenylenediimine and various other salen derivatives and Z = Et or Cl, have been synthesized. Several of these complexes have been characterized by X-ray crystallography. An investigation of the utilization of these aluminum derivatives along with both ionic and neutral bases as cocatalysts for the copolymerization of carbon dioxide and cyclohexene oxide has been conducted.

Copolymerization of CO2 and epoxides catalyzed by metal salen complexes.

The design of efficient metal catalysts for the selective coupling of epoxides and carbon dioxide to afford completely alternating copolymers has made significant gains over the past decade. Hence, it is becoming increasingly clear that this "greener" route to polycarbonates has the potential to supplement or supplant current processes for the production of these important thermoplastics, which involve the condensation polymerization of diols and phosgene or organic carbonates. On the basis of the experiences in our laboratory, this Account summarizes our efforts at optimizing (salen)CrIIIX catalysts for the selective formation of polycarbonates from alicyclic and aliphatic epoxides with CO2.

Cyclohexene oxide/CO2 copolymerization catalyzed by chromium(III) salen complexes and N-methylimidazole: effects of varying salen ligand substituents and relative cocatalyst loading.

A detailed mechanistic study into the copolymerization of CO2 and cyclohexene oxide utilizing CrIII(salen)X complexes and N-methylimidazole, where H2salen = N,N'-bis(3,5-di-tert-butylsalicylidene)-1,2-ethylenediimine and other salen derivatives and X = Cl or N3, has been conducted. By studying salen ligands with various groups on the diimine backbone, we have observed that bulky groups oriented perpendicular to the salen plane reduce the activity of the catalyst significantly, while such groups oriented parallel to the salen plane do not retard copolymer formation. This is not surprising in that the mechanism for asymmetric ring opening of epoxides was found to occur in a bimetallic fashion, whereas these perpendicularly oriented groups along with the tert-butyl groups on the phenolate rings produce considerable steric requirements for the two metal centers to communicate and thus initiate the copolymerization process.

Structures of anhydrous and hydrated copper(II) hexafluoroacetylacetonate.

Crystal structure analyses are reported for anhydrous copper(II) hexafluoroacetylacetonate (Cu(hfac)(2)) and for two of its hydrates. The anhydrous compound (Cu(hfac)(2), 1: P1; at 100 K, a = 5.428(1), b = 5.