Ligand-Based Reduction of CO_2 to CO Mediated by an Anionic Niobium Nitride Complex

摘要

There are several motivations for producing chemicals from CO_2 whenever possible, and in particular, CO is a promising target being both a versatile chemical precursor and a fuel. Reducing metal complexes capable of O-atom abstraction from CO_2 typically lead to the formation of strong metal-oxygen bonds that represent a challenge to catalytic turnover. In a special case for which the binding of CO_2 evidently involves insertion into a Cu-B linkage, catalytic turnover producing CO was accomplished by taking advantage of the ultimate delivery of oxygen into a stable B-O-B reservoir. This is to be compared with electrocatalytic methods for CO_2 reduction to CO in systems that likely involve a direct interaction between CO_2 and the metal center at some point in the catalytic cycle.