The widespread and efficient use of carbon-neutral energy will be facilitated by the storage of this energy in the form of high energy density fuels. The utilization of inexpensive substrates such as CO2 provides an opportunity for large-scale energy storage, and in particular, CO2 can potentially be converted to liquid fuels for use in transportation. To effectively and efficiently interconvert energy and fuels, catalysts are required for these multistep transformations. By understanding the free energies for the transfer of H+, H●, and H– from M–H and analogous species, our research group seeks to rationally design molecular catalysts for the interconversion of energy and fuels. For the hydrogenation of CO2, the solvent has a substantial impact on the free energy for transfer of a hydride from a metal complex to CO2. Through recent studies, we have demonstrated that new catalyst systems can be designed through variation of solvent composition, rather than purely through synthetic modification. The impact of solvent composition on hydride transfer as well as catalytic activity will be presented.

Impact of solvent in the hydrogenation of CO2 using molecular complexes

ACS Fall 2021

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