Terpolymerizations of CO2, Propylene Oxide and DL-Lactide Catalyzed by Zn-Fe DMC Catalysts with Quaternary Ammonium Salts

Polymers synthesized from carbon dioxide (CO2) and epoxy compounds are biodegradable materials and therefore are potentially very important in tackling the plastic pollutions. In this work, we synthesized Zn-Fe DMC catalysts with quaternary ammonium salts as a cocatalyst via ball milling. The obtained catalysts showed excellent activity (turn over frequency up to TOF=5.65 g-polymer/g-Zn h(-1)) in the terpolymerizations of CO2, propylene oxide and DL-Lactide, yielding the biodegradable polymers with average relative molecular mass between 9.8x10(3) and 1.1x10(4), and the polydispersity index in the range of 1.7-2.0. The main advantages of using mechanochemical method for the synthesis of the catalysts lie in the easy adjustment of co-catalyst loading and its operational simplicity.