Zinc supported nitrogen‐rich carbon catalyst for efficient carbon dioxide cycloaddition with epoxides under solvent‐free condition

Developing carbon-based catalyst with both high efficiency and stability presents an enticing prospect for CO2 cycloaddition. In this work, Zn loaded nitrogen-rich carbon catalyst (Zn-NC) was fabricated facilely through the wet impregnation and one-pot pyrolysis method. The Zn-NC coupled with tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB) could achieve the high catalytic efficiency with 93% or 98.1% yield of propylene carbonate (PC) in solvent-free whether under mild condition or traditional heating system, the excellent recyclability and versatility of Zn-NC catalyst were also observed. Moreover, the influence of calcination temperature on catalyst structure, composition and catalytic performance were investigated, and the catalytic mechanism of CO2 cycloaddition with Zn-NC and TBAB was legitimately proposed. Herein, this work provided a promising and sustainable insights to prepare high-efficient and low-cost carbon-based catalysts for CO2 conversion.