Ionic hypercrosslinked polymers featuring hydrogen bonds and Lewis base sites for enhancing the CO2–epoxide coupling reaction

Abstract

We introduce hydrogen bonding sites into ionic hypercrosslinked polymers and examine their role in promoting the CO₂–epoxide coupling reaction. The amino-functionalized iHCPs-NH₂ exhibits the highest catalytic activity, achieving >99% cyclic carbonate yield without any solvent or co-catalyst. This performance stems from good CO₂ adsorption capacity, basic –NH₂ groups that activate CO₂, and hydrogen bonding interactions between –NH₂ and epoxides.