The catalytic reductive transformation of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to fuels and commodity chemicals is one of the most important contemporary energy and environmental challenges. Because CO₂ is very stable, the direct electroreduction of CO₂ to CO requires large over-potentials. Different approaches to electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ have been reported previously.

Copper is commonly considered out of the majority of metals, and it has often been studied in aqueous solutions. Among important issues is that it induces the cleavage of the C-O bonds in CO₂ and it allows the formation of highly reduced products. Due to the unique properties of Cu toward CO₂ reduction, systems in which this is employed have received the greatest degree of interest with respect to the catalytic effects in aqueous and organic electrolytes. In this work, CO₂ reduction was investigated in the presence of new copper complex, in addition to the parallel studies on bimetallic copper-gold complex with the particular focus on the roles of particular metallic centers on the catalyst activity for the carbon dioxide reduction reaction..

A rotating ring (platinum)-disk (glassy carbon) electrode is employed for the characterization of different catalysts during CO₂-electroreeduction in aqueous solutions.

In the process of electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide, we have also concentrated on the catalytic system yielding nanostructured metallic palladium via reduction of the complex of palladium(II), [Pd(C₁₄H₁₂N₂O₃)Cl₂]₂∙MeOH. The catalytic activity of CO₂ reduction was estimated from the oxidation charge of the adsorbed products. The adsorbed products obviously interfere with the formation of the oxide film on the Pd surface.

Mechanistic considerations will be a subject of our interest too. The results of XPS and IR studies will be used o comment on the surface identity of palladium based catalysts and possible reaction pathways.