Decreasing global warming while producing a fuel: N-decorated carbon nanomaterials for sustainable CO2 chemical reduction to methanol

Selective reduction of CO2 to methanol is a challenging catalytic transformation to produce a fuel while reducing carbon footprint and global warming. The development of a sustainable catalytic system for promoting this process efficiently is therefore highly desirable. At odds with catalytic systems of the state-of-the-art, this contribution describes the first example of CO2 chemical reduction to methanol catalyzed by heterogeneous metal-free catalysts in combination with a selection of hydroboranes. In particular, unconventional N-decorated carbon nanomaterials are proven to activate CO2 for its further chemical reduction to methanol with fairly good catalytic performance, easy recyclability and long-life activity with virtually unchanged performance.