Comparative Study of Imidazole and Pyridine Catalyzed Reduction of Carbon Dioxide at Illuminated Iron Pyrite Electrodes

The chemistry of the electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 using nitrogen containing heteroaromatics is further explored by the direct comparison of imidazole and pyridine catalyzed CO2 reduction at illuminated iron pyrite electrodes. The mechanism of imidazole based catalysis of CO2 reduction is investigated by analyzing the catalytic activity of a series of imidazole derivatives using cyclic voltammetry. While similar product distributions are obtained for both imidazole and pyridine, the imidazole catalyzed reduction of CO2 likely proceeds via a very different mechanism involving the C2 carbon of the imidazole ring.