Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 4, 2025

Versatile CO2 Transformations into Complex Products: A One-pot Two-step Strategy
Published on: November 9, 2019
Pathways and Kinetics for Autocatalytic Reduction of CO2 into Formic Acid with Fe under Hydrothermal Conditions
Binbin Jin1, Ligang Luo2, Longfei Xie3
1School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China.
Abstract:
The utilization of CO2, as a cheap and abundant carbon source to produce useful chemicals or fuels, has been regarded as one of the promising ways to reduce CO2 emissions and minimize the green-house effect. Previous studies have demonstrated that CO2 (or HCO3 -) can be efficiently reduced to formic acid with metal Fe under hydrothermal conditions without additional hydrogen and any catalyst. However, the pathways and kinetics of the autocatalytic CO2 reduction remain unknown. In the present work, the reaction kinetics were carefully investigated according to the proposed reaction pathways, and a phenomenological kinetic model was developed for the first time. The results showed that the hydrothermal conversion of HCO3 - into formic acid with Fe can be expressed as the first-order reaction, and the activation energy of HCO3 - is 28 kJ/mol under hydrothermal conditions.
Related Concept Videos
Carbon-dioxide Fixation
Esters to Carboxylic Acids: Acid-Catalyzed Hydrolysis
During hydrolysis, the ester is first activated towards nucleophilic attack through the protonation of the carboxyl oxygen atom by the acid catalyst. The protonation makes the ester carbonyl carbon more electrophilic. In the next step, water acts as a nucleophile and adds to the...
Reduction of Alkenes: Catalytic Hydrogenation
Metals like palladium, platinum, and nickel are commonly used in their solid forms — fine powder on an inert surface. As these catalysts remain insoluble in the reaction mixture, they are referred to as heterogeneous catalysts.
The hydrogenation process takes place on the...
Carboxylic Acids to Primary Alcohols: Hydride Reduction
The Citric Acid Cycle
Reduction of Alkenes: Asymmetric Catalytic Hydrogenation
The metal catalyst used can be either heterogeneous or homogeneous. When hydrogenation of an alkene generates a chiral center, a pair of enantiomeric products is expected to form. However, an enantiomeric excess of one of the products can be facilitated using an enantioselective reaction or an...

