ruthenium catalyst for CO2 photo-reduction

What is it about?

A mononuclear ruthenium complex worked as a dual photo-sensitization/reduction catalyst for CO2 reduction.

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Why is it important?

A lifetime of photo-excited states of Ru complexes is frequently very short, so that CO2 reduction catalyst derived from mononuclear Ru complex needs the help of an extra photosensitizer (e.g., Ru(bpy)3 or Ir(ppy)3 and their derivatives), which has a much longer lifetime of its photo-excited state. In the present study, however, the mononuclear Ru complex did not need any extra photo-sensitizers and a CO2 reduction process became much simpler and straightforward.