Chemistry for a sustainable planet

Oeiras, 6.03.2018

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

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 10.1002/anie.201800705

A Highly Active N-heterocyclic Carbene MnI complex for Selective Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction to CO

Julio Lloret-Fillol, Federico Franco, Mara F. Pinto and Beatriz Royo

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