Wataru Aoki, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, won a GSC Poster Awards on 3rd JACI/GSC symposium

Wataru Aoki in the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, won a GSC Poster Awards on 3rd JACI/GSC symposium.

<about awarded research>

Formic acid, which has been produced 70 tons per year, is made from carbon monoxide and water in current industrial processes. On the other hand, formic acid can be produced from hydrogen and carbon dioxide, which attracts much attention as a cheap, abundant and less toxic carbon resource. Our group have reported that iridium-PNP pincer complex 1-H showed high turnover number and turnover frequency for hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to produce formic acid. In this reaction, potassium hydroxide was employed to accelerate this reaction, but it requires neutralization by acid to get pure formic acid and potassium salt was produced as a byproduct.In my research, this reaction was investigated using an amine as a base, which enable easy separation of pure formic acid by distillation. The ligand backbone was modified and catalyst 2-Cl bearing pyrazine-based backbone was found to show the improved catalytic activity.

<Comments>

I am very happy to receive such an honorable prize. I am grateful to Prof. Kyoko Nozaki and all the members of Nozaki laboratory for fruitful discussions.