ИСТИНА

The excess of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere causes a greenhouse effect, and therefore its transformation into valuable organic materials is one of the top priorities of chemistry. In particular, the reaction of epoxides with CO2 with the formation of practically important cyclic carbonates attracts much attention, since the resulting products are in a great demand in industry. Herein, we have developed new homogeneous catalytic systems based on chiral octahedral Co(III) complexes derived from Schiff’s bases of chiral diamines and salicylic aldehydes for the fixation of CO2 into cyclic carbonates under mild and ambient (1 atm CO2, RT) conditions. The obtained complexes operate as bifunctional catalysts activating the epoxides via hydrogen-bonding.