This talk will describe recent efforts from our group to understand the role of water in the hydrogenation of CO2 to formate using molecular catalysts. Hydride transfer is a critical step in hydrogenation of CO2, and recent efforts from our group and others have demonstrated that water plays a key role in promoting hydride transfer from the catalyst to CO2. As one example, we recently reported that a cobalt phosphine catalyst is able to access a new catalytic pathway in water that is not available in organic solvent. Due to the change in mechanism in water, catalysis can proceed using bicarbonate as a base instead of a strong organic base, however, this benefit is partially offset by a decrease in the catalytic activity. Ongoing studies are focused on further improving catalysis by using binary mixtures of water and organic solvents.

Investigations of the role of water for promoting hydride transfer during catalytic hydrogenation of CO2

2019 Fall National Meeting

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