Honors Theses

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

First Advisor

Jared Delcamp

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

The ability to transform CO2 into a useable fuel source would have a remarkably positive impact on the environment by taking the vast amounts of previous unusable CO2 from the atmosphere and reducing it to CO, which can then be turned into fuel. This project involves the synthesis and testing of air and water stable Re (I) pyridyl N- heterocyclic carbene (NHC) compounds for photocatalytic reduction of CO2 into CO using a simulated solar spectrum. Previous research in this area focused on the use of Re(bpy)CO3X, which quickly became the benchmark of homogeneous CO2 reduction photocatalysts. The Re (I) pyridyl NHC catalysts were stabilized because of a stronger bonded NHC ligand substitution in place of a pyridine on the bipyridal ligand and could be quickly synthesized and purified. The presence and absence of two components, a photosensitizer fac-Ir(ppy)3 and a strong electron donor BIH, were tested along with the catalyst to determine the greatest turnover numbers (TONs) of CO2 to CO. It was found that each of the five catalysts worked to reduce CO2 to CO under conditions with the photosensitizer and BIH, with the RePyNHC(PhCF3) catalyst achieving 51 TON, ~20 TON higher than the Re(bpy)CO3X benchmark. Additionally, the Re-Py-NHC-(PhCF3) catalyst achieved good TONs without the use of the photosensitizer, paralleling the performance of the Re(bpy)CO3X catalyst in the presence of the photosensitizer.

Accessibility Status

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