The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to fuels provides a way to its recycling and could therefore amend associated climate change and increase the sustainability of oil reserves. Transition-metal complexes can have accessible multiple redox states that promote proton-assisted, multielectron pathways approach to CO2 reduction. Such pathways have significantly lower thermodynamic barrier than one-electron reduction of CO2 to CO2-.. Metal carbonyl clusters containing interstitial anionic atoms have redox properties that make them amenable to study for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction. An important long-standing goal in chemistry is the replacement of noble metal based catalysts with nonprecious metals. Towards this goal, we will present a series of iron carbonyl clusters that are efficient catalysts for electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to formate in aqueous solutions. Electrochemical, NMR, and other spectroscopic techniques have provided mechanistic details and information about the intermediates.

Electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide in water with molecular iron carbonyl clusters

248th National Meeting (2014)

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