Highly thermally stable multi-porous calcium aluminum hydrotalcite catalyst for efficient carbonate synthesis

In the context of a carbon–neutral era, conversion of greenhouse gas CO2 via chemical catalysis is a powerful means. Using CO2 and petroleum-derived alkylene oxide as the raw materials to produce high-value carbonate substances has been considered a green and economic path for carbon reduction and energy transition. We discovered a multi-porous calcium aluminum hydrotalcite material (Ca-Al HT), and found that it performs excellent catalytic ability on transesterification (an important reaction in the synthesis of carbonates). Being different from homogeneous basic catalysts such as soluble metal hydroxides and organic halide salts, and well-known solid basic catalyst CaO, which are difficult to recycle and suffer severe deactivation in long-term catalytic process, the robust Ca12Al14O33 crystal phase in Ca-Al HT catalyst behaves much more stable catalytic performance during 4000 min efficient catalysis (63 % conversion and 100 % selectivity). The special crystal phase structure of Ca12Al14O33 remains stable at even a very high temperature of 900 °C. In contrast, CaO as the reference catalyst is very sensitive to trace H2O in catalytic system, and deactivates immediately. The outstanding catalytic ability of Ca-Al HT is attributed to its super-strong alkali strength, large alkali amount, and quick mass transfer originating from the hierarchical pore system.