6533b873fe1ef96bd12d5550

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Electrochemical Syntheses of Carboxylic Acids from Carbon Dioxide

subject

description

The first report on the reduction of carbon dioxide is due to the venerable name of Hermann Kolbe, who, in 1861, published with R. Schmitt the reduction of carbon dioxide to formate with metallic potassium (1). Seven years later he introduced to the Chemical Society in London his assistant E. Drechsel, who “after many unsuccessful experiments, made during several years” (2) at the end succeeded in reducing carbon dioxide to oxalate with metallic sodium or with potassium amalgam in anhydrous conditions. Soon afterwards Beketov (3) and Royer (4) opened the series of papers dealing with the direct involvement of carbon dioxide in electrolytic processes. Since then the reduction of carbon dioxide has been object of continuous investigations, and direct or indirect methodologies have been applied extensively.