Bifunctional chiral catalyst for the synthesis of chiral cyclic carbonates from carbon dioxide and epoxides

Abstract

Bifunctional chiral catalysts incorporating the N,N'-bis(salicylidene) cyclohexenediaminato (salen) ligand and a quaternary onium salt within one metal complex were synthesized and developed for the catalytic kinetic resolution of racemic epoxides with carbon dioxide to generate chiral cyclic carbonates in high yield and with moderate enantioselectivity. These new catalysts also have a great advantage as they can be recycled without any obvious loss of activity and enantioselectivity. © 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH& Co. KGaA, Weinheim.