Borate-catalyzed carbon dioxide hydration via the carbonic anhydrase mechanism.

The hydration of CO(2) plays a critical role in carbon capture and geoengineering technologies currently under development to mitigate anthropogenic global warming and in environmental processes such as ocean acidification. Here we reveal that borate catalyzes the conversion of CO(2) to HCO(3)(-) via the same fundamental mechanism as the enzyme carbonic anhydrase, which is responsible for CO(2) hydration in the human body. In this mechanism the tetrahydroxyborate ion, B(OH)(4)(-), is the active form of boron that undergoes direct reaction with CO(2).