AUTHOR=Das Santu , Balaraju Tuniki , Barman Soumitra , Sreejith S. S. , Pochamoni Ramudu , Roy Soumyajit 

TITLE=A Molecular CO2 Reduction Catalyst Based on Giant Polyoxometalate {Mo368}

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=6

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2018.00514

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2018.00514

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=<p>Photocatalytic CO<sub>2</sub> reduction in water is one of the most attractive research pursuits of our time. In this article we report a giant polyoxometalate {Mo<sub>368</sub>} based homogeneous catalytic system, which efficiently reduces CO<sub>2</sub> to formic acid with a maximum turnover number (TON) of 27,666, turnover frequency (TOF) of 4,611 h<sup>−1</sup> and external quantum efficiency of the reaction is 0.6%. The catalytic system oxidizes water and releases electrons, and these electrons are further utilized for the reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to formic acid. A maximum of 8.3 mmol of formic acid was observed with the loading of 0.3 μmol of the catalyst. Our catalyst material is also stable throughout the reaction. The starting materials for this experiment are CO<sub>2</sub> and H<sub>2</sub>O and the end products are HCOOH and O<sub>2</sub>. The formic acid formed in this reaction is an important H<sub>2</sub> gas carrier and thus significant in renewable energy research.</p>