Electrochemical/Photochemical CO2 Reduction Catalyzed by Transition Metal Complexes

Abstract

Conversion of CO 2 into useful chemicals is attractive as a solution of the fossil fuel shortage and the global warming problems. Reduction of CO 2 into carbon monoxide (CO) and formic acid (HCOOH) is also important for obtaining the materials in organic syntheses. There are a lot of studies on the catalysts for electrochemical/photochemical CO 2 reduction. Especially, transition metal complexes have actively researched as the molecular catalysts for CO 2 reduction. In this chapter, the electrochemical/photochemical CO 2 reduction catalyzed by cis-[Ru(bpy) 2 (CO) 2 ] 2+ (bpy: 2,2′-bipyridine) and trans(Cl)-[Ru(bpy) (CO) 2 Cl 2 ] is described as a representative example.