Chemistry for a sustainable planet
ITQB NOVA chemists from Beatriz Royo Lab, in collaboration with researchers from Institute of Chemical Research in Catalonia, Spain, have developed a highly selective catalyst capable to reduce carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, to carbon monoxide. The carbon monoxide can subsequently be used to develop useful chemicals. The results were just published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Angewandte Chemie, leading chemistry journal with Impact Factor of 11.994.
Large-scale production of value-added chemicals and fuels using renewable energy and carbon dioxide as feedstock is a major challenge in sustainable chemical research. Electrochemical reduction of CO2 has been regarded as a very interesting tool to convert atmospheric CO2 into commodity products. In this work, researchers have developed a new family of manganese complexes bearing N-heterocyclic carbenes capable to perform electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CO with remarkable activity and productivity, exceeding the values reported so far for other manganese-based catalysts. Interestingly, they have been able to detect the active species operating in this process.
“We have synthesized the first pure organometallic manganese complexes for the activation of CO2, and we were very excited to find out that they display unprecedented catalytic activity for converting carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide” said Beatriz Royo, group leader of Organometallic Catalysis Lab. “The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to CO is a major step to the utilization of CO2 as a cheap and renewable source of carbon. ”
Original paper
A Highly Active N‐Heterocyclic Carbene Manganese(I) Complex for Selective Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction to CO
Franco, F., Pinto, M.F., Royo, B. and Lloret‐Fillol, J., 2018. A Highly Active N‐Heterocyclic Carbene Manganese (I) Complex for Selective Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction to CO. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 57(17), pp.4603-4606. doi: 10.1002/anie.201800705
In the news
Chemistry for a sustainable planet, Science Daily, 6.03.2018
Highly Selective Catalyst Reduces Greenhouse Gas to Carbon Monoxide, AzoCleanTech, 9.03.2018
