Hydroxyl-functionalized pyrazolium ionic liquids to catalyze chemical fixation of CO2: Further benign reaction condition for the single-component catalyst

Lots of ionic liquids have been utilized as catalyst for the coupling reaction of carbon dioxide with epoxides, however, catalyzed conditions could not be regarded as benign, especially when no co-catalyst and/or organic solvent is involved. A series of hydroxyl-functionalized pyrazolium ionic liquids are firstly synthesized. They would efficiently catalyze the cycloaddition of carbon dioxide and propylene oxide under 110 °C and 1.0 MPa carbon dioxide initial pressure with 1 mol% catalyst during 4 h resulting in the product yield of 91.2%. The catalytic condition is greatly refined as compared with other single-component ionic liquids with simple anion. Simultaneously, the effect of reaction temperature, amount of catalyst, carbon dioxide initial pressure, and reaction time is explored along with the reusability of catalyst. For most of epoxides with terminal substituted group, HEEPzBr presents acceptable catalytic activity. The difference of HEMPzBr, HEEPzBr, and HPEPzBr is also explored by the density functional theory calculations.