C. Liu, L. Liu and Zheng-Bo Han
Polyhedron 196 (2021) 115016
to the preset pressure at room temperature and stirring was set at
5
00 rpm. After finishing the reaction, stop the magnetic stirrer and
the reactor was cooled by ice. The micro-sheets 1 were centrifuged
from the reaction solution, and the product yields were identified
by gas chromatograph.
3
. Result and discussion
3.1. Crystal structure of 1
[
Co(L)0.5(oba)]
n
(1) was first reported by Cui [22]. It had 3D
0
framework which consisted of Co(II) as metal center and 4,4 -oxy-
bis(benzoate) and 1,6-bis(5,6-dimethylbenzimidazolyl) hexane as
ligands. In 1, each Co(II) center was four coordinated by three oxy-
gen atoms of two oba anions and one nitrogen atom from the L
ligand, the packing diagram was displayed in Fig. S1. With high
density coordinative unsaturated Co(II) metal centers, 1 could per-
form as Lewis acid catalysts in the context of cycloaddition of
2
ꢀ
epoxides with CO
.2. Morphology
Fig. 1a displayed a Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) image
2
to form cyclic carbonates under mind condition.
3
of the precipitate of 1 prepared by the hydrothermal method.
In contrast with the 1 prepared by ultrasonic method, large bulks
of 1 were observed. The size and morphology of the 1 prepared
through the ultrasonic method by changing three conditions (con-
centration of initial reagents, irradiation time and ultrasonic
power) were characterized with SEM (Fig. 1b–f). Initially, two con-
centrations of all reagents (0.01 and 0.005 M) at irradiation time of
Scheme 1. Synthesis of cyclic carbonates by 1.
range of 5–40° at room temperature. Infrared Spectra (IR) were
recorded on an Avatar 360 (Nicolet) instrument in the 500–
000 cm region using the KBr pellet technique. Scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) and Energy dispersion spectrum (EDS) were
observed using a JSM-IT100 system (JEOL Instrument, Tokyo,
Japan), the accelerating voltage of SEM during the measurement
was 20.0 kV. Thermogravimetric analysis (TG) was collected using
a NETZSCH TG 209 thermal analyzer in air at a heating rate of 10 °-
ꢀ
1
4
3
0 min and ultrasonic power of 210 W were performed respec-
tively. Sheets-like 1 were obtained (Fig. 1b and c). When the con-
centration of the initial reagent changed from 0.01 to 0.005 M,
the mean thickness of the sheets decreased from about 490 to
255 nm. It displayed that low initial reagents led to thinner mor-
phology. Hence, concentration of the initial reagent of 0.005 M
was selected for the next experiments.
ꢀ
1
C min
2
in the 30–800 °C range. Ultrasonic cleaning unit KQ-
200DE (Kun Shang Ultrasonic Instrument, Jiangsu, China) was
used for ultrasonic synthesis of 1. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET)
were carried out on a 3H-2000PS2 automated gas sorption ana-
lyzer (Beishide Instruments). Gas chromatography analysis (GC)
were performed by Puxi G5 chromatograph (Beijing General
instrument Co., Ltd.).
Further, the influence of irradiation time on the size and mor-
phology of 1 were monitored by different times (30, 60 and
9
0 min) at constant concentration of 0.005 M and sonication power
of 210 W. (Fig. 1c–e). As shown in Fig. 1c, when the reaction was
performed for 30 min, micron sheets were formed, but their mor-
phologies were not uniform. When the ultrasonic time was
extended to 60 min, thinner (average thickness 160 nm) and uni-
form 1 were prepared (Fig. 1d). While the sonication time
increased to 90 min, too long time increased the thickness of
sheets. The distribution size of 1 became nonuniform and agglom-
erated structure appeared (Fig. 1e). Therefore, the best reaction
time was 60 min.
In addition, the effect of ultrasonic power on the size and mor-
phology of 1 were discussed. The reactions were carried out under
different ultrasonic powers (150 and 210 W). Compared with
Fig. 1f and d, we can see that more aggregated sheets were
obtained by low ultrasonic power (150 W). The results proved that
using higher ultrasonic power was favor to generating thinner
micron sheets than those using lower power. Table S1 showed an
overview of the morphologies and size of 1 compared by the
change of initial reagents concentration, ultrasound time and pow-
ers. Fig. 2(I) showed the physical photographs before and after
ultrasonic reaction.
2
.2. Synthesis of micro-sheets 1
A mixture of 0.1 mmol Co(OAc)
2
ꢁ4H
2
O, 0.1 mmol L, 0.1 mmol
H
2
oba, 100 mg polyethylene glycol (average mol wt 20,000) were
dissolved in 10 m L of H O-EtOH mixed solution (volume ratio of
H2O:EtOH = 4:1) in a beaker with stirring. The mixed solution was
2
V
positioned in the ultrasonic bath, and operated for 30 min at a
power of 210 W. The purple 1 were obtained by centrifugation,
then washed using EtOH three times, and dried in air. These pro-
cesses were also done at concentrations of all reagents of
.005 M, and irradiation time and ultrasonic power at
0 min/210 W, 60 min/210 W, 90 min/210 W and 60 min/150 W
0
3
to research the effects of concentration of initial reagents, sonica-
tion time and power on the size and morphology of 1.
2
.3. Catalytic experiments
Propylene carbonate (PC) synthesis from propylene oxide (PO)
and CO (Scheme S1) was performed in a 25 mL stainless steel
2
high-pressure reactor equipped with a magnetic stirrer. In the typ-
ical operation, PO, TBAB and micro-sheets 1 were transferred into
All experimental results demonstrated that changed the con-
centration of the initial reagent, irradiation time or ultrasonic
power probable were a feasible approach to control the sizes and
morphologies of 1 [23]. Considering that the thinner sheets were
conducive to exposing more active centers, micro-sheets 1 pre-
2
the reactor without any solvent. Then CO pressurized into reactor
2