An efficient CO2 fixation reaction with epoxides catalysed by in situ formed blue vanadium catalyst from dioxovanadium(+5) complex: moisture enhanced and atmospheric oxygen retarded catalytic activity

Two new dioxovanadium(+5) complexes, one anionic and other neutral, have been synthesized and characterized by X-ray crystallography in this work. While doing cycloaddition reaction of CO2 to epoxides, taking dioxovanadium(+5) complex as the catalyst, a blue vanadium complex was generated in situ, which was found to be the active catalyst, showing excellent catalytic activity in the presence of tetrabutylammonium bromide as the co-catalyst. The catalytic activity of the catalyst system is enhanced by moisture and, on the other hand, is retarded by atmospheric oxygen. The enhanced catalytic activity at moistened conditions shows the applicability of the catalyst for CO2 fixation from wet flue gas. However, the retarded catalytic activity caused by atmospheric oxygen is important from the mechanistic point of view.