INTERACTION OF CARBON-DIOXIDE WITH SUPPORTED METAL CATALYST SURFACES

The environmental concern about the impact of CO2 has grown recently d ue to its rapidly increasing concentration. Deforestation strongly aff ects the natural reduction of CO2 by water into carbohydrates through the photosynthesis process. Various transition metal complexes have ex hibited activities to catalyze the reaction of CO2 with various hydroc arbons, oxygenates, and amines. Industrial utilization of CO2 by heter ogeneous catalytic reactions can be one of the effective ways to cut t he CO2 level. The first step in the catalytic reaction of CO2 is adsor ption. Rh is selected for this study because of its unique activity to catalyze a number of CO2 related reactions. In situ infrared results reveal that CO2 adsorbed on the reduced catalyst surface as carboxylat e species and on the oxidized catalyst surface as bidentate and monode ntate carbonate species which are also the dominant adsorbed species d uring the H-2 TPR study.