Bifunctional Catalysts for CO2 Reduction

Abstract

Sustainable fuel production requires using renewable energy to power the reductive fixation of carbon dioxide. Although robust technologies are available for converting renewables into electricity, converting electricity to carbon-based fuel is precluded by the lack of effective carbon dioxide electroreduction catalysts. We proposed to prepare bifunctional catalysts that would feature a nucleophilic site to attack the electrophilic carbon of CO2 and an electrophilic site to stabilize the negative charge build-up on oxygen upon CO2 reduction. To achieve this goal, we targeted three families of catalysts: (1) modified salen/salan dinucleating ligand platforms to form binuclear catalysts; (2) dipyrrin-supported complexes that would feature readily tuneable metal-based redox potentials; and (3) cluster-based catalysts to reduce CO2 and CO.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 2014
Accession Number
ADA610432

Entities

People

  • A. B. Scharf
  • G. T. Sazama
  • M. Lalonde
  • Theodore A. Betley

Organizations

  • President and Fellows of Harvard College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Amines
  • Carbon Dioxide
  • Catalysts
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemistry
  • Coordination Complexes
  • Electron Transfer
  • Electrons
  • Energy Storage
  • Hydrogen
  • Materials
  • Metals
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Spectra
  • Transition Metals
  • Transitions

Fields of Study

  • Chemistry

Readers

  • Electrochemical Engineering/ Fuel Cell Technologies
  • Nanoscale Plasmonic Nanotechnology
  • Organic Chemistry