Carbon dioxide hydrogenation to formate catalyzed by a bench-stable, non-pincer-type Mn(I) alkylcarbonyl complex

Abstract

The catalytic reduction of carbon dioxide is a process of growing interest for the use of this simple and abundant molecule as a renewable building block in C1-chemical synthesis and for hydrogen storage. The well-defined, bench-stable alkylcarbonyl Mn(I) bis(phosphine) complex fac-[Mn(CH2CH2CH3)(dippe)(CO)3] [dippe = 1,2-bis(diisopropylphosphino)-ethane] was tested as an efficient and selective non-precious-metal precatalyst for the hydrogenation of CO2 to formate under mild conditions (75 bar total pressure, 80 °C), in the presence of a Lewis acid co-catalyst (LiOTf) and a base (DBU). Mechanistic insight into the catalytic reaction is provided by means of density functional theory (DFT) calculations.