Professor Clifford Kubiak, University of California, San Diego. Solar fuels: selective reduction of carbon dioxide when protons are everywhere. R.B. Woodward Lectures in the Chemical Sciences, Inorganic Chemistry Seminar.
Abstract:
In the artificial photosynthesis of solar fuels from CO2 there is presently little agreement about what carbon-containing molecule should be made from CO2 in the first place – carbon monoxide, formic acid, methanol, methane, or higher hydrocarbons. The reduction of CO2 must also be selective since production of solar fuels generally requires protons, and proton reduction to hydrogen is favored thermodynamically compared CO2 reduction. Several classes of catalysts, old and new, will be discussed in terms of their activities, selectivities, and general promise in artificial photosynthetic devices. Finally, new strategies for the lowering of overpotentials of electrocatalysts for the reduction of CO2 will be discussed, and the latest results presented.