CO 2 is the major greenhouse gas suspected to cause global warming, and various CO 2 capture and sequestration technologies using liquid amines or solid-phase sorbents to remedy the situation have been evaluated. [1][2][3] Chemical conversion of CO 2 is also being considered as a means of sequestration, because CO 2 can be an attractive C 1 building block that can be converted to valuable chemical products. In this regard, the cycloaddition reaction is one of the most promising reactions for CO 2 currently under consideration. In this process, cyclic carbonates are produced by the coupling of carbon dioxide with various epoxides. [4][5][6] These carbonates are used widely in industry as solvents, monomers, and pharmaceutical and fine-chemical intermediates. 7 A range of homogeneous catalysts, such as ionic liquids, or transition-metal complexes, such as Re(CO) 5 Br or Co(III)-salen, [8][9][10] have been used to produce cyclic carbonates. On the other hand, the frequent necessity to employ a base promoter and the rigorous purification process required for catalyst separation are significant limitations. A heterogeneous catalyst that can promote the reaction under mild reaction conditions would be highly desirable.Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are crystalline organicinorganic hybrid structures formed by the coordination of metal ions or clusters with multidentate organic linkers. These materials have been investigated actively for potential energy storage, CO 2 capture, hydrocarbon adsorption/separation, and catalysis owing to their high surface areas in uniformly sized pores as well as the high metal content in high dispersion.
11-14Song et al. examined the cycloaddition of CO 2 to propylene epoxide over MOF-5 with a quaternary ammonium salt as a co-catalyst, 15 whereas ZIF-8 and Cu 3 (BTC) 2 were tested for the cycloaddition of epichlorohydrin (ECH) without employing a solvent. 16,17 Mg-MOF-74 was effective not only for CO 2 capture but also for its chemical conversion via a cycloaddition reaction.18 Recently, amine-functionalized was reported to be promising for the cycloaddition of styrene oxide with CO 2 , and the catalytic activity was correlated with the concerted contribution by Lewis acid/base sites on the MOF catalysts. MIL-101 is a chromium-benzenedicarboxylate MOF having a high surface area with excellent stability against moisture and other chemicals, and has been applied to a wide range of chemical reactions either as a catalyst or as support material. [20][21][22] In this study, the amine-functionalized MIL-101 structures were prepared by two different routes: direct solvothermal method using 2-aminobenzene-1,4-dicarboxylate as a ligand, and post-synthesis grafting of diethylenetriamine (DETA) onto the Cr open metal sites. The materials were studied as a catalyst for the cycloaddition of CO 2 to ECH. The amine-functionalized MIL-101 structures were found to be active catalysts for the catalytic cycloaddition of CO 2 to a range of epoxides in an organic solvent, and control of the relative amounts ...