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Prof. Dr. Wei Xu

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Interdisciplinary Materials Research Center, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China
Interests: canning probe microscopy; density functional theory; surface molecular; self-assembly; surface molecular reaction; atomic-scale manipulations

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Dear Colleagues,

In this International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS) collection, new and original research that has a broad readership from all aspects of physical chemistry and chemical physics is published. For publication here, research must provide significant new innovation and insight in the physical chemistry and chemical physics fields with a focus on molecular research. The submitted articles will be judged by the Editors and peer-reviewers. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Intermolecular forces that act upon the physical properties of materials
Reaction kinetics on the rate of a reaction
The identity of ions and the electrical conductivity of materials
Surface science and the electrochemistry of cell membranes
Probing the structure and dynamics of ions, free radicals, polymers, clusters, and molecules
Chemical structures and reactions at the quantum mechanical level
The structure and reactivity of gas-phase ions and radicals
Energy/charge transfer dynamics in organic/inorganic materials
Physical processes in nanomaterials

Prof. Dr. Wei Xu
Guest Editor

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Keywords

heterogeneous structures
alignment and surface phenomena
quantum theory
mathematical physics
statistical and classical mechanics
molecular structure
chemical kinetics
laser physics
dynamics
kinetics
photochemistry
spectroscopy
exciton dynamics
statistical mechanics
thermodynamics
electrochemistry
catalysis
surface science
quantum mechanics
theoretical developments
fundamental aspects of catalysis
solar energy conversion
polymer dynamics

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

14 pages, 7301 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Facile Construction of Carboxyl-Functionalized Ionic Polymer towards Synergistic Catalytic Cycloaddition of Carbon Dioxide into Cyclic Carbonates

by Ying Chen, Yingjun Li, Hu Wang, Zaifei Chen and Yi-Zhu Lei

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(18), 10879; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms231810879 - 17 Sep 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1571

Abstract

The development of bifunctional ionic polymers as heterogeneous catalysts for effective, cocatalyst- and metal-free cycloaddition of carbon dioxide into cyclic carbonates has attracted increasing attention. However, facile fabrication of such polymers having high numbers of ionic active sites, suitable types of hydrogen bond donors (HBDs), and controlled spatial positions of dual active sites remains a challenging task. Herein, imidazolium-based ionic polymers with hydroxyl/carboxyl groups and high ionic density were facilely prepared by a one-pot quaternization reaction. Catalytic evaluation demonstrated that the presence of HBDs (hydroxyl or carboxyl) could enhance the catalytic activities of ionic polymers significantly toward the CO₂ cycloaddition reaction. Among the prepared catalysts, carboxyl-functionalized ionic polymer (PIMBr-COOH) displayed the highest catalytic activity (94% yield) in the benchmark cycloaddition reaction of CO₂ and epichlorohydrin, which was higher than hydroxyl-functionalized ionic polymer (PIMBr-OH, 76% yield), and far exceeded ionic polymer without HBDs groups (PIMBr, 54% yield). Furthermore, PIMBr-COOH demonstrated good recyclability and wide substrate tolerance. Under ambient CO₂ pressure, a number of epoxides were smoothly cycloadded into cyclic carbonates. Additionally, density functional theory (DFT) calculation verified the formation of strong hydrogen bonds between epoxide and the HBDs of ionic polymers. Furthermore, a possible mechanism was proposed based on the synergistic effect between carboxyl and Br⁻ functionalities. Thus, a facile, one-pot synthetic strategy for the construction of bifunctional ionic polymers was developed for CO₂ fixation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics in China)

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