Superalkalis for the Activation of Carbon Dioxide: A Review

Abstract

The activation of carbon dioxide is essential not only for global carbon balance but also for its conversion into fuel. As CO2 is highly stable, it is quite challenging to activate or reduce CO2. Recently, the ability of superalkalis to easily transfer an electron to CO2 has been proposed in several studies. The superalkalis are species possessing lower ionization energy than alkali atoms. These are hypervalent species, having an excess of electrons. Owing to this, they possess strong reducing power and cause the linear structure of CO2 to bend by transferring an electron to it. Herein, we present a comprehensive account of the single-electron reduction and activation of CO2 by various kinds of superalkalis. This review also includes a novel strategy for the capture and storage of CO2 by superalkali.