Issue 16, 2020

Molecular catalysis of CO2 reduction: recent advances and perspectives in electrochemical and light-driven processes with selected Fe, Ni and Co aza macrocyclic and polypyridine complexes

Abstract

Earth-abundant Fe, Ni, and Co aza macrocyclic and polypyridine complexes have been thoroughly investigated for CO2 electrochemical and visible-light-driven reduction. Since the first reports in the 1970s, an enormous body of work has been accumulated regarding the two-electron two-proton reduction of the gas, along with mechanistic and spectroscopic efforts to rationalize the reactivity and establish guidelines for structure–reactivity relationships. The ability to fine tune the ligand structure and the almost unlimited possibilities of designing new complexes have led to highly selective and efficient catalysts. Recent efforts toward developing hybrid systems upon combining molecular catalysts with conductive or semi-conductive materials have converged to high catalytic performances in water solutions, to the inclusion of these catalysts into CO2 electrolyzers and photo-electrochemical devices, and to the discovery of catalytic pathways beyond two electrons. Combined with the continuous mechanistic efforts and new developments for in situ and in operando spectroscopic studies, molecular catalysis of CO2 reduction remains a highly creative approach.

Graphical abstract: Molecular catalysis of CO2 reduction: recent advances and perspectives in electrochemical and light-driven processes with selected Fe, Ni and Co aza macrocyclic and polypyridine complexes

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
09 3 2020
First published
22 7 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Soc. Rev., 2020,49, 5772-5809

Molecular catalysis of CO2 reduction: recent advances and perspectives in electrochemical and light-driven processes with selected Fe, Ni and Co aza macrocyclic and polypyridine complexes

E. Boutin, L. Merakeb, B. Ma, B. Boudy, M. Wang, J. Bonin, E. Anxolabéhère-Mallart and M. Robert, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2020, 49, 5772 DOI: 10.1039/D0CS00218F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements