A novel supported ionic liquid catalyst, GO-[DBU][Br] catalyzes cycloaddition of CO2 in a fixed-bed reactor.

• DBU-based ionic liquid was immobilized on GO by chemical grafting method. • GO-[DBU] [Br] showed excellent catalytic activity for the reaction of CO 2 and epoxides under mild conditions. • The catalyst was easy to recover and exhibits good chemical stability after five reuses. • Continuous catalytic CO 2 cycloaddition reaction was investigated in a fixed bed reactor, with the highest yield of 77.3%. Emissions of carbon dioxide can lead to the greenhouse effect, causing global warming and so on. conversion of carbon dioxide into high-value chemicals through catalysis, which is an effective method to successfully curb carbon emissions and prevent the greenhouse effect. Among them, CO 2 chemical synthesis of cyclic carbonate is one of the important way. In this paper, a new type of supported ionic liquid catalyst (GO-[DBU][Br]) was synthesized by one-pot method. Subsequently, the GO-[DBU][Br] was applied to the cycloaddition reaction of CO 2 in batch reaction and fixed bed continuous reaction, respectively. The stability of the catalyst was also explored, the GO-[DBU][Br] was easily separated and reused at least 5 times without significant loss of catalytic activity. The excellent catalytic performance comes from the synergistic effect of ionic liquid cations, halogenated anions, and a large number of oxygen-containing functional groups on the GO surface, a possible reaction mechanism was thus proposed. The study provides a safe, efficient, and industrial-scale continuous reaction system for CO 2 utilization. [Display omitted] Molecular Catalysis [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]