The homogeneous catalyzed carbon dioxide fixation to useful fuels by photochemical methods is a major goal of artificial photosynthesis. Homogeneous photosensitizer ruthenium polypyridyl complexes are good candidates because they absorb in the visible solar spectrum, have long lived excited state, and are strong reductants in the excited state. In this work, we will demonstrate an aqueous system utilizing ruthenium trisbipyridine as photosensitizer, 4,4'-bipyridinium as electron relay, and EDTA as sacrificial donor under 200W Xe-Arc lamp to reduce carbon dioxide to formate.  The Bocarsly group has previously demonstrated that pyridinium electrocatalyzes the reduction of CO2 to methanol at a p-Gap electrode. The understanding of homogeneous system can shed light on the mechanism how pyridinium compounds using as electron transfer mediator.  To extend this project, novel ruthenium compounds covalently link a pyridyl moiety are designed for CO2conversion.

Photochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to formate using 4,4'-bipyridinium and pyridinium derivatives as electron transfer mediators

244th National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.