A Sulfonated Porous Polymer as Solid Acid Catalyst for Biofuel Synthesis and Chemical Fixation of CO 2

Deforestation and uncontrolled emission of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) through abundant use of fossil fuels result global warming. This serious threat to the atmosphere has deeply motivated the researchers to develop new strategies for chemical fixation of CO 2 and biofuel synthesis. Here we report the sulfonated porous polytriphenylamine (SPPTPA‐1, BET surface area of 664 m 2 g −1 , pore volume 0.386 cc g −1 ) as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates via CO 2 fixation into epoxides. SPPTPA‐1 catalyst contains pores with dimension of 1.8‐2.0 nm, which produced a H1 type hysteresis loop in N2 adsorption/desorption isotherm. The porous catalyst is thermally stable upto 196 °C. The synthesized SPPTPA‐1 catalyst contains large amount of surface acidic sites. Further, it catalyzes the esterification reaction of levulinic acid, long chain fatty acids and dicarboxylic acids due to presence of its acidic sites. This solid acid catalyst SPPTPA‐1 showed excellent recycling efficiency upto 5 times in all these demanding reactions.