Cobalt catalysed reduction of CO2via hydroboration

Dalton Trans. 2018 Jun 25;47(25):8199-8203. doi: 10.1039/c8dt01985a.

Abstract

We report an operationally convenient reduction of CO2 to methanol via cobalt catalysed hydroboration which occurs under mild reaction conditions. Addition of NaHBEt3 to Co(acac)3 generates an active hydroboration catalyst, which is proposed to be a "Co-H" species on the basis of infrared spectroscopy. The reduction of CO2 in the presence of various boranes showed that BH3·SMe2 afforded near quantitative conversion (98% NMR yield) to methanol upon hydrolysis.