We report a comparative study on the activity of a series of fifteen binary catalysts derived from various reported aluminum-based complexes. A benchmarking of their initial rates in the coupling of various terminal and internal epoxides in the presence of three different nucleophilic additives was carried out, providing for the first time a useful comparison of activity metrics in the area of cyclic organic carbonate formation. These investigations provide a useful framework for how to realistically valorize relative reactivities and which features are important when considering the ideal operational window of each binary catalyst system.
Keywords: aluminum; benchmarking; carbon dioxide; cyclic organic carbonates; homogeneous catalysis.
© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.