Methanol is a promising renewable fuel that can be used in various liquid fuel infrastructures. At the same time, methanol can be produced by hydrogenating carbon dioxide to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and hydrogen can be stored in the process. However, the current industrial hydrogenation reaction requires higher temperature and pressure, and a large amount of unwanted by-products are generated. Nature can use a multi-component catalyst system to convert simple and abundant starting materials into complex molecules necessary for life. On the contrary, since it is difficult to replicate the complex supramolecular assemblies used by biology for active site separation and substrate transport, this strategy is rarely used in synthetic chemical transformation.

Recently, Jeffery A. Byers, Chia-Kuang Tsung of Boston College in the United States reported that the bionic tandem multi-component catalytic system can effectively hydrogenate carbon dioxide to methanol at low temperatures. The researchers solved the problem of incompatibility of the catalyst by encapsulating at least one catalyst participating in the tandem process in a nanoporous material with a metal organic framework, thereby achieving excellent catalytic performance. Moreover, in the long run, the method can be applied to other tandem catalytic processes, so as to obtain more effective alternative fuels, daily chemicals and valuable pharmaceutical products.

Highlights of this article

Key points 1. This multi-component series catalytic system can effectively hydrogenate CO2 to methanol.

Point 2. The autocatalytic function can be realized by the catalyst chelation in the metal organic framework.

Point 3. By encapsulating a variety of catalysts, the catalyst can be recycled and reused and reproduced.

Thomas M. Rayder, et al, A Bioinspired Multicomponent Catalytic System for Converting Carbon Dioxide into Methanol Autocatalytically, Chem, 2020
DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2020.04.008
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451929420301765
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