Polymer formation from CO 2 – a Dream Production

The utilisation of CO2 as a feedstock for chemical syntheses has been envisioned by chemists for a long time. However, its chemical inertness and the high activation energy prohibited many straightforward routes to generate value-added products from CO2 so far. Recent developments in high-performance catalysts have finally allowed the fine-tuning of process conditions under which CO2 forms technically relevant co-polymers with epoxides. Monitoring the process allows to optimise the recipe in terms of feeding intervals, temperature profile etc. Due to the demanding process conditions – elevated pressure, gas-liquid regime – only an in situ technique can gather true information on the composition and behaviour of the reacting mixture.