Theoretical studies on transition metal catalyzed carbon dioxide fixation

Identificador:  TDX:2536

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX2536

Autors:  Castro Gómez, Fernando Simón

Resum:
Theoretical studies have been conducted in order to evaluate reaction mechanisms for CO2 fixation processes catalyzed by transition metal complexes. Thus, detailed mechanistic steps (ring-opening, CO2 insertion and ring-closing reactions) were described for the catalytic formation of cyclic carbonates from CO2 and a series of epoxides based on Zn(salen) complexes, in conjunction with NBu4X(X=I, Br). The computed DFT activation energies were found to be qualitatively in line with the experimental findings. Moreover, a highly active Al catalyst (derived from amino triphenolate ligands) was considered to study the same reaction, but from a quantitative point of view. In light of this, the activity of this catalyst system was examined by means of the theoretical calculation of frequencies (TOFs). The latter resulted in the same order of magnitude as the experiments. The last mechanism studied here comprises the copolymerization reaction between CO2 and cyclohexene oxide mediated by the binary system composed of the aforementioned Al complex species and NBu4I. Three possible pathways were found to describe the reaction depending on the number of Al complexes involved in the propagation step. Results suggest that the alternating copolymerization should be the most favorable pathway over the formation of the five-membered cyclic carbonate product. In addition to the above studies, methods of ion mobility mass spectrometry (IM-MS) have been employed to provide structural information on a series of transition metal complexes involved in homogeneous catalysis. Theoretical collision cross sections (CCSs) were determined and compared with those resulting from IM-MS experiments. The outcome from both methodologies yielded excellent agreement.