Transition Metal Complex Catalysts for the Electrochemical
Reduction of CO
2Carlo Nervi, Roberto Gobetto
Department of Chemistry, University of Torino. Via P. Giuria 7, 10125 Torino, Italy, e-mail: carlo.nervi@unito.itt
The conversion of CO2 into valuable chemicals/fuels is a perfect way for
approa-ching the contemporary challenges of green-house emission and depletion of fossil energy resources. The need for a radical breakthrough in energy supply technolo-gies can be ideally pursued by the so-called “Solar Fuel” approach [1]. However, artificial photosynthesis of organic molecules is still far away from providing real-world solutions. One of the scientific challenges is to perform efficiently and selec-tively the multi-electron reduction of carbon dioxide. A convenient approach is to optimize separately the catalytic and light-harvesting properties. This is possible because the photocatalytic mechanism usually proceed via a reductive quenching pathway [2], i.e. the real catalyst is the reduced form produced in situ; thus the search of an efficient catalyst for CO2 reduction and its study can be pursued using
electrochemical techniques. In this presentation an overview of our and other recent advances in the use of organometallic complexes as catalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction will be illustrated. Analogies and differences among several
transition metal complexes will be outlined, including the better known mechanism
based on Re(bpy)
complexes, the effect of local proton sources on the Mn(bpy) complexes [3] as well as some outline on the use of earth-abundant transition metal complexes (Mo and W) [4] employed as redox catalysts for CO2
electrochemical reduction.
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