Towards Rational Understanding of the Fe-quarterpyridine-mediated CO2 Reduction Reaction

A renewable and clean energy economy is a societal challenge that has become one of the main concerns during last decades because of the implication of fossil fuels in global warming and climate change. Artificial photosynthesis is one of the most promising alternatives. In our group, we have prepared the recently reported [FeII(qpy)(H2O)2]2 with the objective of fully understanding the mechanism of the CO2 reduction to CO. Within this context, Kβ XES, HERFD, VtC XES techniques, are powerful techniques that can provide unique mechanistic information of this system, helping for the future design of not only qpy-based, but also other CO2 reduction catalysts.