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Volume 3, Issue 2 (Suppl)
Trends in Green chem
ISSN: 2471-9889
Environmental & Green Chemistry 2017
July 24-26, 2017
Page 24
5
th
International Conference on
6
th
International Conference on
July 24-26, 2017 Rome, Italy
Environmental Chemistry and Engineering
Green Chemistry and Technology
&
Readily available homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts for the cycloaddition of CO
2
to epoxides: A
low carbon-footprint perspective
Valerio D’ Elia
Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology, Thailand
T
he conversion of CO
2
to chemicals is in the focus of academic and industrial research due to the high demand of viable strategies
in alternative to the atmospheric release or geological segregation of carbon dioxide anthropogenic emissions. Cyclic organic
carbonates represent a relevant class of chemicals that can be prepared from CO
2
by its cycloaddition to epoxides. Importantly they
can be applied as chemical intermediates in the industry, as building blocks for polymers, as solvents and as additives in commercial
products. Moreover, they are increasingly studied as useful chemical intermediates. A plethora of homogeneous and heterogeneous
catalyst has been developed for the title reaction in the last decades, but, in spite of the exothermic nature of the cycloaddition process,
only a small fraction of the published systems are able to promote this reaction under ambient conditions. Among such systems
there are very simple halides of early transition metals used in combination with nucleophilic co-catalysts that take advantage of
their high Lewis acidity for the step of ring opening of the epoxide substrate. Intriguing mechanistic aspects have been identified that
suggest a bimetallic step of CO
2
activation when NbCl
5
is used as a catalyst. This effect has been observed as well for silica supported
Nb atoms leading to an unprecedented cooperative effect for surface immobilized atoms in the activation of CO
2
. We have recently
shown that early transition metal halides of yttrium, scandium and zirconium can also convert CO
2
to cyclic organic carbonates
when industrial waste flue gas was used as an impure source of CO
2
, an observation that could pave the way for a direct and highly
integrated conversion of CO
2
at the point of emission, thus circumventing the additional C-costs relative to purification, compression
and transportation of CO
2
. These systems will be reviewed along with other recently discovered, readily available catalysts for the title
reaction.
Biography
Valerio D’ Elia obtained his Master’s in Chemistry from University of Perugia in 2001 and worked as a Scientist at Dompe Pharmaceuticals (L’ Aquila, Italy). He
joined the group of Oliver Reiser (Regensburg, Germany) for his Doctoral Studies in 2005. After a period (2009-2010) at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich
under Hendrik Zipse, he joined Jean Marie Basset at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Catalysis Center (Saudi Arabia). Since August
2015, he has been a Faculty Member in the School of Molecular Science and Engineering at the Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology (VISTEC) in
Rayong, Thailand. His main research interests are CO
2
Chemistry and Catalysis.
valerio.delia@vistec.ac.thValerio D’ Elia, Trends in Green chem, 3:2
DOI: 10.21767/2471-9889-C1-002