Chemistry for a sustainable planet

Large-scale production of value-added chemicals and fuels using renewable energy and carbon dioxide as feedstock is a major challenge in sustainable chemical research. Electrochemical reduction of CO₂ has been regarded as a very interesting tool to convert atmospheric CO₂ into commodity products. In this work, researchers have developed a new family of manganese complexes bearing N-heterocyclic carbenes capable to perform electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to CO with remarkable activity and productivity, exceeding the values reported so far for other manganese-based catalysts. Interestingly, they have been able to detect the active species operating in this process.

"We have synthesized the first pure organometallic manganese complexes for the activation of CO₂, and we were very excited to find out that they display unprecedented catalytic activity for converting carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide" said Beatriz Royo, group leader of Organometallic Catalysis Lab. "The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to CO is a major step to the utilization of CO₂ as a cheap and renewable source of carbon."