A Sulfonated Porous Polymer as Solid Acid Catalyst for Biofuel Synthesis and Chemical Fixation of CO2

• Published in: ChemistrySelect (Weinheim) 2019-12, Vol.4 (48), p.14315-14328
• Main Authors: Dey, Tusar Kanto, Bhanja, Piyali, Basu, Priyanka, Ghosh, Aniruddha, Islam, Sk. Manirul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: CO2 fixation; Esterification reaction; Heterogeneous catalyst; Porous polymer; Solid acid catalyst
• ISSN: 2365-6549; 2365-6549
• DOI: 10.1002/slct.201902110

Deforestation and uncontrolled emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) through abundant use of fossil fuels result global warming. This serious threat to the atmosphere has deeply motivated the researchers to develop new strategies for chemical fixation of CO2 and biofuel synthesis. Here we report the sulfonated porous polytriphenylamine (SPPTPA‐1, BET surface area of 664 m2 g−1, pore volume 0.386 cc g−1) as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates via CO2 fixation into epoxides. SPPTPA‐1 catalyst contains pores with dimension of 1.8‐2.0 nm, which produced a H1 type hysteresis loop in N2 adsorption/desorption isotherm. The porous catalyst is thermally stable upto 196 °C. The synthesized SPPTPA‐1 catalyst contains large amount of surface acidic sites. Further, it catalyzes the esterification reaction of levulinic acid, long chain fatty acids and dicarboxylic acids due to presence of its acidic sites. This solid acid catalyst SPPTPA‐1 showed excellent recycling efficiency upto 5 times in all these demanding reactions. Sulfonated porous polytriphenylamine (SPPTPA‐1) catalyst was synthesized starting from triphenylamine by a polymerization reaction and then sulfonation was performed by chlorosulfonic acid. The synthesized porous polymeric catalyst is highly effective for the synthesis of cyclic carbamates, levulinate esters, fatty acid esters, and dicarboxilic acid esters. The yields of isolated products are excellent compared to other reported works. This reported SPPTPA‐1 catalyst is also highly recyclable up to five reaction runs.