A Novel Synthesis Process for Styrene Carbonate from Styrene by Quaternary Ammonium Bromide

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel and convenient synthetic route for styrene carbonate from styrene and CO₂ in the presence of quaternary ammonium (phosphonium) salts, which avoids the isolation of intermediate epoxide. This route couples the two sequential reactions of epoxidation of styrene and cycloaddition of CO₂ to epoxide into one step. With tetrabutylammonium bromide catalyst, oxidants have strong effect on the carbonate yield. Moreover, the synergistic effect of bulky ammonium cation and moderate nucleophilicity of Br^- anion results in its good performance in the one-pot synthesis of styrene carbonate.