Mechanistic Studies on the Reversible Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide Catalyzed by an Ir-PNP Complex

The PNP-ligated iridium(III) trihydride complex 1 exhibited the highest catalytic activity for hydrogenation of carbon dioxide in aqueous KOH. The catalytic hydrogenation can be tuned to be a reversible process with the same catalyst at the expense of the activity, when triethanolamine was used as a base. Theoretical studies on the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide using DFT calculations suggested two competing reaction pathways: either the deprotonative dearomatization step or the hydrogenolysis step as the rate-determining step. The results nicely explain our experimental observations that the catalytic cycle is dependent on both the strength of the base and hydrogen pressure.