Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide by Homogeneous Iridium Catalysts

The electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) to chemical fuels provides not only a means to utilize CO2 but also a solution to challenges relating to the storage and transport of renewable energy. For this purpose, a range of catalysts for the electroreduction of CO2 have been studied, and recent progress in the context of tuning catalytic properties and understanding their mechanism of action has been remarkable. For example, molecular approaches allow fine-tuning of the catalyst behavior by the design of suitable ligands to suppress the overpotential for CO2 conversion. This chapter focuses on homogeneous iridium catalysts for the electroreduction of CO2, whereby the examples provided give mechanistic insight into the design of catalysts to efficiently and selectively produce electroreduced compounds from CO2 using electricity.