This
work provides insights to understand the selectivity during
the reduction of CO2 with metalloporphyrin (MP) catalysts.
The attack of a nucleophile on the carbon of the CO2 appears
as an important event that triggers the catalytic reaction, and the
nature of this nucleophile determines the selectivity between CO (or
further reduced species) and HCOOH/HCOO–. For MP,
the possible electrogenerated nucleophiles are the reduced metal-center
and the hydride donor species, metal-hydride and phlorin-hydride ligand.
The reduced metal-center activates the CO2 with the formation
of the metal–carbon bond, which then gives rise to the formation
of CO. The hydride donor species trigger the CO2 reduction
by the attack of the hydride on the carbon of the CO2 (formation
of a C–H bond), which results in the formation of HCOOH/HCOO– (formation of the metal-bonded formate intermediate
is not involved). The MP with the metals Ni, Cu, Zn, Pd, Ag, Cd, Ga,
In, and Sn are predicted to only form the phlorin-hydride intermediate
and are thus suitable to produce HCOOH/HCOO–. This
agrees well with the available experimental results. The MP with the
metals Fe, Co, and Rh can form both the reduced-metal center and the
hydride donor species (metal-hydride and phlorin-hydride), and thus
are able to form both CO and HCOOH/HCOO–. The production
of CO for Fe and Co is indeed observed experimentally, but not for
Rh, probably due to the presence of axial ligands that may hinder
the formation of the metal-bonded intermediates and thus drive the
CO2RR to HCOOH/HCOO– via the phlorin intermediate.