Abstract

The development of renewable energies, such as solar energy in particular, requires new efficient technologies for storing them in the form of energy-dense chemicals. One example is hydrogen, derived from water, which can be used as an energy vector. Another example is carbon-based compounds, such as carbon monoxide, formic acid, methanol and hydrocarbons, derived from reduction of CO2 . To achieve this goal one needs to optimize cheap and stable metal-based catalysts for electro-reduction of CO2 and also to combine them with photosensitizers/semiconductors to achieve photo-reduction of CO2 . This field has recently been revivified with the objective to generate artificial photosynthetic devices. During this presentation, an overview of the best and most recent electrocatalysts and photocatalysts will be given. We also discuss various strategies developed in our laboratory to achieve this goal based on: (i) homogeneous Co- and Ni- complexes; (ii) bioinspired molecular W- and Mo-based complexes (iii) heterogenous Cu- based materials; (iv) supramolecular Metal-Organic-Frameworks.

Financial support from the French National Research Agency (ANR, Carbiored ANR -12-BS07-0024-03; Labex program ARCANE , ANR-11-LABX-0003-01 and DYNAMO , ANR-11-LABX-0011) and from Fondation de l’Orangerie for individual philanthropy and its donors is gratefully acknowledged.