Differences in reactivity of epoxides in the copolymerisation with carbon dioxide by zinc-based catalysts: propylene oxide versus cyclohexene oxide.

The homogeneous dinuclear zinc catalyst going back to the work of Williams et al. is to date the most active catalyst for the copolymerisation of cyclohexene oxide and CO(2) at one atmosphere of carbon dioxide. However, this catalyst shows no copolymer formation in the copolymerisation reaction of propylene oxide and carbon dioxide, instead only cyclic carbonate is found.