New lanthanide(III) coordination polymers: synthesis, structural features, and catalytic activity in CO2 fixation

A new series of lanthanide coordination polymers formulated as [Ln(mu-L)(mu(3)-L)(H2O)](n)X-n (Ln/X = Er/Cl (1), Er/Br (2), Tm/Cl (3), Tm/Br (4), Yb/Cl (5), and Yb/Br (6); L = 1,3-bis(4-carboxyphenyl) imidazolium carboxylate(1+)) were solvothermally generated and fully characterized. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis shows that all products possess isomorphous structures that are composed of cationic 1D double chains with encapsulated halide anions. From a topological perspective, such 1D chains can be classified as a binodal 3,5-connected net with a unique topology defined by the point symbol of (3.4(2))(3(2).4(2).5(3).6(2).7). All products 1-6 feature a remarkable thermal stability and were applied as highly active heterogeneous catalysts for the coupling reactions between halogenated propylene oxides and CO2 to give the corresponding cyclic carbonates. The reaction conditions, substrate and catalyst scope, and mechanistic features of this catalytic transformation were investigated. High products yields (up to 98%), elevated TONs (up to 3920) or TOFs (up to 326 h(-1)) were attained under mild reaction conditions. In addition, catalyst 6 can be recycled at least eight times with no loss of catalytic activity.