Development and Characterization of Zinc Glutarate (ZNGA) and Double Metal Cyanide (DMC) Catalyst for Bio-Based Polycarbonate Application

Heterogeneous metal complex catalyst such as Zinc glutarate (ZnGA) and Zinc-Ferum Double Metal Cyanide (Zn-Fe DMC) have been shown to improve reactivity for alternating copolymerization using CO2 and epoxides. However, there are not lot of studies that have been done to study the effect of different parameter such as time and temperature on the catalytic activities of ZnGA and Zn-Fe DMC. ZnGA was treated with toluene while Zn-Fe DMC catalyst was treated with (complexing agent) tert-butanol. The main focus of this study is to synthesize ZnGA and Zn-Fe DMC at different parameter where the catalysts were produced at a variety of temperatures (50,60,70 °C) and reaction times (3h & 9h). Three different zinc-ferum ratios (1:4, 1:6, and 1:8) were developed for the Zn-Fe DMC catalyst to compare the effect of iron as metal and zinc on the active site. The catalyst was characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to determine their functional elements and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis (BET) for surface characterization and pore size. The effects of reaction parameters such as time and reaction temperature were investigated using this catalyst in an auxiliary-batch reactor. FTIR result shows that GA was successful incorporation into ZnO and the production of ZnGA catalysts. The presence of typical functional groups in the Zn–Fe DMC catalysts was also confirmed. The surface area and pore volume of ZnGA increases as the temperature and reaction time increases while Zn-Fe DMC the surface area and pore volume decrease as the ratio increases. These surface-modified catalysts can generate high-molecular-weight polymers, which benefits both the environment and industry.