Atom-economical reduction of carbon monoxide to methanol catalyzed by soluble transition metal complexes at low temperatures

Abstract

Hydrocarbons and methanol are considered the preferred products of catalytic reduction of carbon monoxide derived from clean natural gas. In this paper, we focus on atom-economical synthesis of methanol catalyzed by soluble transition metal complexes as single-site catalyst precursors under mild reaction conditions. Of the metal systems reported in the literature, Ni complexes activated by alkoxide bases affected homogeneous CO reduction to methanol at low temperatures (80°–130 °C) and low pressures (2000–5000 kPa) to achieve CO conversion and methanol selectivity of >90 and >95, respectively. The involvement of mono- and multi- nuclear Ni species that readily interconvert under methanol producing conditions is invoked. A process based on such an active catalyst system would position methanol to be considered an inexpensive feedstock for the synthesis of other derivatives.