Utilization of CO{sub 2} in production of polycarbonate

Our original thrust, that of developing a direct route to diphenyl carbonate (the monomer for bisphenol A polycarbonate) using carbon dioxide as a raw material, was unsuccessful. The appendix describes the experiments that were tried in this regard. The primary problem was that we were unable to replicate the literature results of Yamazaki, et al, despite using their conditions and reactants, which form the basis for the proposed work. Despite this setback, we have derived a new route to diphenyl carbonate, which we have described in a proposal to the NSF/EPA partnership for environmental research (the sustainable technology section) which was submitted in April 1995. This route would incorporate carbon dioxide into a dialkyl carbonate using a tin catalyst, followed by transesterification using an enzyme to diphenyl carbonate. Thus, this work may continue on the future. However, despite the setbacks in the original proposed work, we set up two new collaborations with both Miles (now Bayer) and Exxon which employ CO{sub 2} as both monomer and solvent in polymer processing