Commercial iron (II) phthalocyanine (FePc) was knitted with biphenyl using a Friedel-Crafts reaction to yield a micro-meso porous organic polymer (FePc-POP) with a specific surface area of 427 m2/g and 5.42% of iron loading. This strategy allowed for the direct synthesis of a heterogeneous catalyst from an iron containing monomer. The catalytic system, formed by the knitted polymer containing FePc and DMAP (4-dimethylamino pyridine) as base, results in an efficient heterogeneous catalyst in the cycloaddition of CO2 to epichlorohydrin to selectively obtain the corresponding cyclic carbonate. Thus, a TON (mmol substrate converted/mmol catalysts used) value of 2700 was reached in 3 h under mild reaction conditions (solvent free, 90 °C, 3 bar of CO2). The catalyst does not exhibit leaching during the reactions, which was attributed to the excellent stability of the metal in the macrocycle.
Keywords: CO2 conversion; cyclic carbonate; iron (II) phthalocyaninates; knitted porous polymer; recyclability.