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.