defence Y. Alassmy: "Development of metal-free catalysts for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from CO2"
| When: | Tu 27-10-2020 09:00 - 10:00 |
| Where: | academy building |
The aim of this work that led to this thesis was to design and develop metal-free catalytic systems that can catalyse the reaction of CO2 with epoxides to produce cyclic carbonates as the main target product under mild conditions (e.g. low temperature and low CO2 pressure). The ideal catalytic system should be synthesised through a simple, low-cost procedure, display high catalytic performance, good recyclability, and easy separation from the reaction products. Besides, the development of the new cyclic carbonates products was a further aim of this work. The catalytic systems developed in this PhD project achieved improved performance compared to the state-of-the-art catalysts for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from CO2. Two classes of metal-free catalytic systems were studied for the CO2/epoxide reaction in this thesis. The first class is a homogenous catalytic system, which is based on organic halide in the presence of water as a hydrogen bond donor. The second system is a heterogeneous catalyst consisting of Amberlite ion-exchange resin, which is used in combination with water as HBD (chapter 3). The Amberlite ion-exchange resin is further studied without using water for the one-pot conversion of CO2 into glycerol carbonate (chapter 4). Finally, a summary of the main achievements of the PhD thesis on the synthesis of cyclic carbonate from CO2 and epoxide is highlighted in chapter 6.
promotors: P. Pescarmona and F. Picchioni