Visible-Light Photocatalytic Conversion of Carbon Dioxide by Ni(II) Complexes with N4S2 Coordination: Highly Efficient and Selective Production of Formate.

The efficient and selective light-driven conversion of carbon dioxide to formate is a scientific challenge for green chemistry and energy science, especially utilizing visible-light energy and earth-abundant catalytic materials. In this report, two mononuclear Ni(II) complexes of pyridylbenzimidazole (pbi) and pyridylbenzothiazole (pbt), such as Ni(pbt)(pyS) () and Ni(pbi)(pyS) () (pyS = pyridine-2-thiolate), were prepared and their reactivities studied. The two Ni complexes were examined for CO conversion using eosin Y as a photosensitizer upon visible-light irradiation in a HO/ethanol solvent.