Work

Reduction Polymerization of CO 2 with Phenylene Silanes Catalyzed by Single Component B(C 6 F 5 ) 3

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: CO 2 is an abundant C1 resource but a green‐house gas and chemically inert. Thus, its utilization has been a promising but challenging project. Herein, we report the unprecedented polymerization of CO 2 and C 6 H 4 (SiMe 2 H) 2 using B(C 6 F 5 ) 3 alone under mild conditions to give poly(silphenylene siloxane) accompanied by releasing CH 4 . The copolymerization can be extended to comonomers of phenylene silanes bearing functional groups. Moreover, it combines with Piers‐Rubinsztajn reaction to establish a tandem polymerization system to achieve super thermal resistant poly(siloxane‐co‐silphenylene siloxane)s. Density functional theory reveals that B(C 6 F 5 ) 3 is activated by silanes to form free HB(C 6 F 5 ) 2 , which is the true active species for CO 2 reducing to borylformate, the rate controlling step of the polymerization procedure. The subsequent multiple reductions of borylformate to CH 4 and the step‐growth to poly(silphenylene siloxane)s can be fulfilled by both B(C 6 F 5 ) 3 and HB(C 6 F 5 ) 2 , and the former shows a slightly higher activity. This work opens a new avenue of utilizing CO 2 to fabricate polysiloxanes that is unable to access using current manners.

Source: Angewandte Chemie International Edition

DOI: 10.1002/anie.202415626

Authors: Wenhao He, Bingwen Li, Yuxuan Li, Xinli Liu, Dongmei Cui

Institutions: University of Science and Technology of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Dezhou University

Language: English

Topic: Carbon dioxide utilization in catalysis

Subfield: Process Chemistry and Technology

Field: Chemical Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China