Top Organomet Chem (2021) 69: 325–340
https://doi.org/10.1007/3418_2020_54
# The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020,
corrected publication 2020
Published online: 4 August 2020
Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide by
Homogeneous Iridium Catalysts
Ryoichi Kanega
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
2 Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide to Formate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
2.1 Homogeneous Catalysts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
2.2 Immobilized Catalysts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
3 Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide to Carbon Monoxide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
4 Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide to Oxalate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Abstract The electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to chemical fuels provides
not only a means to utilize CO 2 but also a solution to challenges relating to the
storage and transport of renewable energy. For this purpose, a range of catalysts for
the electroreduction of CO 2 have been studied, and recent progress in the context of
tuning catalytic properties and understanding their mechanism of action has been
remarkable. For example, molecular approaches allow fine-tuning of the catalyst
behavior by the design of suitable ligands to suppress the overpotential for CO 2
conversion. This chapter focuses on homogeneous iridium catalysts for the
electroreduction of CO 2 , whereby the examples provided give mechanistic insight
into the design of catalysts to efficiently and selectively produce electroreduced
compounds from CO 2 using electricity.
The original version of this chapter was revised. A correction to this chapter can be found at
https://doi.org/10.1007/3418_2020_73
R. Kanega (*)
Research Institute of Energy Conservation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science
and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
e-mail: r-kanega@aist.go.jp
https://doi.org/10.1007/3418_2020_54
# The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020,
corrected publication 2020
Published online: 4 August 2020
Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide by
Homogeneous Iridium Catalysts
Ryoichi Kanega
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
2 Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide to Formate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
2.1 Homogeneous Catalysts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
2.2 Immobilized Catalysts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
3 Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide to Carbon Monoxide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
4 Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide to Oxalate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Abstract The electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to chemical fuels provides
not only a means to utilize CO 2 but also a solution to challenges relating to the
storage and transport of renewable energy. For this purpose, a range of catalysts for
the electroreduction of CO 2 have been studied, and recent progress in the context of
tuning catalytic properties and understanding their mechanism of action has been
remarkable. For example, molecular approaches allow fine-tuning of the catalyst
behavior by the design of suitable ligands to suppress the overpotential for CO 2
conversion. This chapter focuses on homogeneous iridium catalysts for the
electroreduction of CO 2 , whereby the examples provided give mechanistic insight
into the design of catalysts to efficiently and selectively produce electroreduced
compounds from CO 2 using electricity.
The original version of this chapter was revised. A correction to this chapter can be found at
https://doi.org/10.1007/3418_2020_73
R. Kanega (*)
Research Institute of Energy Conservation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science
and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
e-mail: r-kanega@aist.go.jp