Polymeric Catalysts Based on Poly(vinylpyridine)

Green chemistry (environment-friendly chemistry) has been defined as a chemical technology that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of dangerous or hazardous waste materials [ 1 ]. Organic chemistry can have key roles for achieving the major goals of “green chemistry”. For this purpose, many attempts have been done by organic chemists to replace perilous and toxic materials and methods with the environmentally friendly ones [ 2 ]. Among these, heterogenization of homogeneous catalysts by polymers is recognized to play a leading part in the development of green chemistry, and extensive studies have been carried out on synthesis and application of various kinds of polymer supported catalysts [ 3–6 ]. The utilization of polymeric catalysts offers several advantages such as enhanced stability, higher selectivity, easier handling, the possibility to use an excess of catalyst to force the reaction completion without causing work-up problems, non-toxicity, non-corrosiveness, and mildness of the reaction conditions. More importantly, the use of polymer catalyst provides the advantages of the easier product isolation and catalyst recycling, resulting in the elimination of environmentally harmful wastes.