RESEARCH INTERESTS

Catalytic transformations of carbon dioxide; Asymmetric catalysis; Coordination polymerization with an emphasis on polymer stereochemistry control
Catalytic transformation of CO2 into desirable, economically competitive products has attracted much attention due to economic and environmental benefits arising from the utilization of renewable source and the growing concern on the greenhouse effect. One of the most promising green reactions in this area is the alternating copolymerization of CO2 and epoxides to generate biodegradable polycarbonates. For CO2/aliphatic epoxides copolymerization, there exists much interesting information, such as polymeric/cyclic product selectivity, ether and carbonate linkages, regiochemistry of epoxide ring-opening, and stereochemistry of carbonate unit sequence in a polymer, which bears a memory of the reaction pathway leading to its formation. Recently, our group have proposed a convenient route to optically active polycarbonates or cyclic carbonates by a catalytic kinetic resolution process resulting from the coupling reaction of CO2 and racemic epoxides. Unprecedented activity and stereochemistry control were observed in our reported catalyst systems, even at 0.1 MPa CO2 pressure. Continuous determination of a polymer chain-end group (initiating and chain-growth species) at various time was firstly achieved by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI/MS), which in combination with kinetic study gave us an insight into the mechanistic understanding of CO2/epoxides copolymerization in the presence of binary electrophile-nucleophile catalyst system.

PUBLICATION

1. Hui Zhou, Wen-Zhen Zhang, Cui-Hua Liu, Jing-Ping Qu, Xiao-Bing Lu*, CO2 Adducts of N-Heterocyclic Carbenes: Thermal Stability and Catalytic Activity toward the Coupling of CO2 with Epoxides, J. Org. Chem., 2008, in press.
2.Bo Li, Guang-Peng Wu, Wei-Min Ren, Yi-Ming Wang, Dun-Yan Rao, Xiao-Bing Lu*, Asymmetric, Regio- and Stereo-selective Alternating Copolymerization of CO2 and Propylene Oxide Catalyzed by Chiral Chromium Salan Complexes, Journal of Polymer Science A: Polymer Chemistry, 2008, 46, 6102-6113.
3. Bo Li, Rong Zhang, Xiao-Bing Lu*, Stereochemistry Control of the Alternating Copolymerization of CO2 and Propylene Oxide Catalyzed by SalenCrX Complexes, Macromolecules 2007, 40, 2303-2307.
4. Xiao-Bing Lu*, Lei Shi, Yi-Ming Wang, Rong Zhang, Ying-Ju Zhang, Xiao-Jun Peng, Zhi-Chao Zhang, and Bo Li. Design of Highly Active Binary Catalyst Systems for CO2/Epoxides Copolymerization: Polymer Selectivity, Enantioselectivity and Stereochemistry control, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 1664-1674..
5. Lei Shi, Xiao-Bing Lu*, Rong Zhang, Xiao-Jun Peng, Chun-Qing Zhang, Jian-Feng Li, Xue-Ming Peng, Asymmetric Alternating Copolymerization and Terpolymerization of Epoxides with Carbon Dioxide at Mild Conditions, Macromolecules, 2006, 39, 5679-5685.
6. Xiao-Bing Lu*, Yi Wang, High Activity, Binary Catalyst Systems for the Alternating Copolymerization of CO2 and Epoxides under Mild Conditions, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2004, 43, 3574-3577.
7. Xiao-Bing Lu*, Bin Liang, Ying-Ju. Zhang, et al. Asymmetric Catalysis with CO2: direct synthesis of optically active propylene carbonate from racemic epoxides, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 3732-3733.