Carbon nanotube heterogenization improves cobalt pyridyldiimine complex CO reduction activity in aqueous carbonate buffer.

We present two novel cobalt pyridyldiimine complexes functionalized with pyrene. Initially modest in homogeneous acetonitrile solution, their electrocatalytic CO reduction performance significantly improves upon immobilization on MWCNTs in an aqueous carbonate buffer. The complexes exhibit outstanding stability, with CO selectivity exceeding 97%, and TON and TOF values reaching up to 10 and above 1.2 s, respectively.