Metal-promoted Synthesis of Cyclic Carbonates from 1,2-diols and Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

Chemical fixation of CO2 to value-added products/materials/fuel has attracted more and more attention from both academia and governmental agencies all over the worldsince CO2 is an easily available and sustainable C1 resource with the advantage of being abundant, nontoxic, nonflammable and renewable. Synthesis of organic carbonates starting from CO2 is one of the most promising methodologies and has been widely investigated. The use of CO2 and 1,2-diols can bring many advantages, such as reusing the byproducts generated in the industrial dimethyl carbonate (DMC) process and simplifying the post purification process. In this paper, synthetic methods with reaction mechanism of ethylene carbonate (EC), propylene carbonate (PC) and glycerol carbonate from CO2 and ethylene glycol (EG), or propylene glycol (PG) or glycerol are systematically discussed.