Thermodynamics and kinetics of CO2, CO, and H+ binding to the metal centre of CO2 reduction catalysts

In our developing world, carbon dioxide has become one of the most abundant greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It is a stable, inert, small molecule that continues to present significant challenges toward its chemical activation as a useful carbon end product. This tutorial review describes one approach to the reduction of carbon dioxide to carbon fuels, using cobalt and nickel molecular catalysts, with particular focus on studying the thermodynamics and kinetics of CO2 binding to metal catalytic sites.