Amazing combination of factors transforms chemistry into green chemistry

In search of green or sustainable chemistry there are different objectives to achieve, and already achieve successfully one already represents a step forward to improve the world that surrounds us. Here, in this collaborative work between the experimental team of the University of Normandy (France) led by Prof. Jean Luc Renaud, and from Girona, Dr. Albert Poater the computational complementary part, has been able to achieve not only find a catalyst capable of fixing CO₂, but to find out one that is not based on noble metals, expensive, and of high toxicity, and furthermore, dealing with water as a solvent. An iron, most abundant metal catalyst of the Earth’s layer has been employed.  Overall, a highly efficient, stable, phosphine-free, and easy-to-synthesize iron catalyst system for the reduction of CO₂, hydrogenocarbonate, and carbonate in pure water is reported.

Coufourier, Q. Gaignard-Gaillard, J.-F. Lohier, A. Poater, S. Gaillard, J.-L. Renaud; “Hydrogenation of CO2, Hydrogenocarbonate, and Carbonate to Formate in Water using Phosphine Free Bifunctional Iron Complexes”; ACS Catal. 2020, 10, 2108-2116. DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.9b04340