CO2 is a main greenhouse gas whose atmospheric concentration has doubled over the last 300 years. Hence, capping CO2 emissions by converting CO2 to liquid fuels is of great importance. Previously, we have demonstrated that pyridinium can electrochemically catalyze the reduction of CO2 to formate, formaldehyde and methanol on Pd, Pt and p-GaP electrodes. Other aromatic amines are also catalytic for the reduction of CO2 to methanol. Surprisingly, we find that imidazolium catalyzes CO2 reduction via a very different mechanism that observed with pyridinium. In the imidazolium case it appears that carbene formation at CO2 C2 carbon is central to the catalytic reduction of CO2. Experiments show that histidine, a derivative of imidazole, also has the capacity ot catalyze CO2 to methanol at a gold electrode. Faradaic yields, electrode overpotentials, and product distributions will be reported for both imidazole and histidine electrocatalyzed reactions.

Mechanistic studies of the imidazolium catalyzed electrochemical reduction of CO<sub>2 </sub>to liquid fuels

244th National Meeting (2012)

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Mechanistic studies of the imidazolium catalyzed electrochemical reduction of CO2 to liquid fuels

Mechanistic studies of the imidazolium catalyzed electrochemical reduction of CO₂to liquid fuels