Mononuclear phenoxy-imine Mg(II) compounds as catalysts for the ring-opening copolymerization of epoxides with CO₂

The ring-opening copolymerization (ROCOP) of epoxides with CO₂ is an efficient gateway for synthesizing sustainable aliphatic polycarbonates. The demand for the use of biocompatible metals for the copolymerization is an appealing research goal. The oxophilic Mg(II) has been employed as a metal center in homodinuclear and heterodinuclear catalyst frameworks. However, there is scarce literature involving mononuclear Mg(II) compounds. This work investigates the catalytic activity of two series of phenoxy-imine containing mononuclear Mg(II) compounds for the copolymerization studies of epoxides with CO₂ in conjugation with cocatalyst tetraphenylphosphonium chloride (TPPCl). The two series of Mg(II) compounds differed from each other in the number of ancillary ligands attached to the Mg(II) center. The two epoxides employed for the study include cyclohexene oxide (CHO) and propylene oxide (PO). The catalytic activity of the disubstituted Mg(II) compounds was higher compared to monosubstituted compounds. In addition, the dependence of catalytic activity and percentage of carbonate linkage with the variation in the substituent of the phenolate core and imine side arm were studied. At 40 bar CO₂ pressure and 80 °C, the catalyst exhibited carbonate linkage up to 97 % for ROCOP with cyclohexene oxide (CHO) with the percentage of the highest m-centered tetrad reaching up to 94 %. The mechanism for the ROCOP of CHO with CO₂ is proposed based on kinetics studies and experimental data, which is further supported by density functional theory-based calculations.