Development of New Catalytic Reactions toward Utilization of Renewable Resources

Carbon dioxide is one of the most attractive renewable C1 resources, which has many practical advantages such as abundance, economic efficiency, and lack of toxicity. The favorable nature as a carbon source is, however, inextricably linked to its inherent inertness. Here we report a new strategy to circumvent thermodynamic and kinetic barriers for copolymerizations of carbon dioxide and olefins by using a meta-stable lactone intermediate, 3-ethylidene-6-vinyltetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-one, which is formed by the palladium-catalyzed condensation of carbon dioxide and 1,3-butadiene. Subsequent free radical polymerization of the lactone intermediate afforded high-molecular-weight polymers with a carbon dioxide content of 33 mol% (29 wt%).1 The obtained polymer consists of a bicyclic repeating unit whose hydrolysis was reversible.2

Speaker: Kyoko Nozaki, University of Tokyo