Triethanolamine-modified mesoporous SBA-15: Facile one-pot synthesis and its catalytic application for cycloaddition of CO2 with epoxides under mild conditions

A grafted technique was introduced as a facile method for producing triethanolamine-modified mesoporous SBA-15 (TEA/SBA-15), and applied in cycloaddition of CO2 to epoxides the first time. The product of the reaction, cyclic carbonates, can also be applied in different fields, such as battery, resin, etc. The prepared TEA/SBA-15 had excellent activity and reusability, and can be easily recovered. Moreover, the DFT results indicated that the presence of hydrogen bonds played an important role on high catalytic ability.130