CAREER: Studies of Catalytic Carbon Dioxide Reduction, Metallodithiolene Chemistry and Community Outreach to Build the Chemical Workforce

Tulane University, New Orleans LA

Investigators

Abstract

This award by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program and the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) to Professor James P. Donahue of Tulane University addresses the synthetic and thermodynamic challenges of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that threatens our social, economic and environmental security because of its potential to induce climate change through global warming. The ability to transform even a small percentage of anthropogenic CO2 to chemical fuels that can be transported and stored would be beneficial. A key transformation in CO2 reduction, and the most energy intensive step, is the transformation to carbon monoxide (CO). The Donahue laboratory utilizes unique, bioinorganic-inspired approaches to catalytic CO2-to-CO reduction. The broader impacts of this work include the possible development of new insights into how nature has modified (and presumably lowered) the kinetic barrier that prevents CO2 from being easily utilized as a chemical feedstock for fuels, pharmaceuticals, and plastics. Undergraduate students from local small colleges that do not have access to research facilities are engaged in Professor Donahue's laboratories. Additionally, the chemistry demonstration series has been re-instated in New Orleans grade schools. The undergraduates involved in this project fulfill the requirements of a new public service degree requirement at Tulane Univeristy while sparking curiosity in chemistry at the grade school and middle school levels.