Preparation of three new Mn based nanocluster photoinitiators and their application in copolymerization of carbon dioxide and propylene oxide

Carbon dioxide derived copolymers are becoming useful materials in the fields of packaging, construction, household products and auto parts. In which, the polycarbonate and cyclic carbonate can be obtained by ring opening copolymerization with epoxy compounds. Here, three manganese based nanoclusters were prepared and their catalytic copolymerization with CO2 and propylene oxide (PO) was studied. The results show that the catalytic efficiency of nano clusters catalyst G1 is higher than that of K1 and J1. When Mn and Cd atoms are in certain proportion and R1 or R2 combined action with clusterss, the catalytic efficiency is promoted. Due to the synergistic effect of G1 and R2, the catalytic efficiency is greatly improved. When the external light source with wavelength of 493 nm and 100 W is introduced, the copolymerization efficiency is the highest. For G3, TON increased by nearly two-thirds to 232.3, CPC content was 6.34%, and PPO content reaches 88.47%.