General Approach to Silica-Supported Salens and Salophens and Their Use as Catalysts for the Synthesis of Cyclic Carbonates from Epoxides and Carbon Dioxide

General routes for the synthesis of silica-immobilized symmetrical and unsymmetrical salophen and salen ligands and metal complexes have been developed starting from the natural product 4-allylanisole (methyl-chavicol and estragole). The key step of the syntheses is a microwave-assisted, platinum oxide catalyzed hydrosilylation of the terminal alkene of 5-allyl-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde to afford a sol–gel precursor which can be immobilized into silica before or after conversion to salen and salophen ligands to afford unsymmetrical and symmetrical silica-supported ligands, respectively. Both the symmetrical and unsymmetrical silica-supported salophens were found to catalyze the formation of cyclic carbonates from epoxides and carbon dioxide with catalytic activities at least comparable to those previously reported for non-immobilized homogeneous salophens. This reaction could also be carried out in a multi-phase flow reactor using ethyl acetate solutions of 3-phenoxypropylene oxide. Metal complexes of the silica-immobilized ligands could be prepared, and the aluminum complexes were also found to catalyze cyclic carbonate formation.