Palladium catalyzed synthesis of aromatic carbonates

Abstract A catalyst system was designed for direct synthesis of aromatic polycarbonates by oxidative carbonylation of various diphenols. The catalyst system is constituted of a Pd based carbonylation catalyst, a combination of inorganic and organic redox cocatalyst for in situ regeneration of active Pd species, a base and a dehydrating agent. Resulting polymers were characterized by IR, NMR, MALDI-TOF mass, and GPC analysis. GPC results showed that polymers of Mw up to 7.9 x 10 3 could be synthesized successfully.