Ahmad Rouhollahi - Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Fazel Ghahramanifard - Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Carbon dioxide is now known to be a major cause of global warming because it is the largest contributor to the green house effect. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), atmospheric concentrations of CO۲ increase each year by about ۲ ppm [۱]. Photosynthesis, photocatalytic and electrochemical reduction of CO۲ seem to be three of the most effective methods for the procssening and recovery of the air carbon based sources. Since CO۲ is the most stable and the most oxidized state of carbon, the transformation of CO۲ to other compounds is fundamentally an energy requiring reduction process [۲]. Direct electrochemical reduction of CO۲ on various bare metalic electrodes requires large overpotentials (more negative than -۲ V vs saturated calomel electrode) [۳]. It is therefore important to search for active electrocatalysts which can mediate electrochemical reduction of CO۲ at lower potentials. Numerous transition-metal (mainly Co and Ni) complexes, such as macrocyclic cobalt or nickel, cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc), or porphyrin, have been reported to have such catalytic effects[۳].In this study, the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide by Cobalt-dimethylglyoxime complex [Co(DMG)۲ClPy] in acetonitrile solvent investigated.

Carbon dioxide, Electrocatalyst, Overpotential, Cyclic voltametry