Scientists have investigated how to improve catalysts for liquid solar fuels, an active area of renewable energy research, by studying the conversion of carbon dioxide to formate or methanol.
They used a nickel complex catalyst to analyse the proton and electron transfer process. They discovered that the reaction proceeds via proton coupled electron transfer, the catalyst is bifunctional and its protons have an important role, which was unexpected, they say.
The research has further implications for fuel production and catalyst design.
Read this ‘HOT’ EES article:
Formate oxidation via ß-deprotonation in [Ni(PR2NR’2)2(CH3CN)]2+ complexes
C S Seu et al, Energy Environ. Sci., 2012
DOI: 10.1039/c2ee03341k
