Manganese Catalyst Breakthrough Enables Durable CO2-to-Formate Conversion
Researchers from Yale and the University of Missouri report that manganese-based catalysts can efficiently convert atmospheric CO2 into formate, a potential hydrogen carrier for fuel cells. The key advance is stabilizing the Mn catalysts by incorporating an additional donor atom into the ligand (hemilabile, pincer-like design), dramatically extending catalyst lifetimes and outperforming many precious-metal systems. This low-cost, durable approach to CO2 utilization could be broadly applicable to other catalytic transformations and supports sustainable hydrogen storage strategies.
