Executive Summary : | The continuous increase in the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere results in the climate change and lead to the drastic wheather condition. The genesis of this concern is primarily due to the industrial revolution in the eighteenth century, which has triggered population growth, deforestation, and extensive consumption of fossil fuels. Reducing the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is one of the biggest challenges we face today. India has signed the Paris agreement, and it is imperative to mitigate the CO2 emissions into the atmosphere to leave a better world for our future generations. One of the strategies by which the release of CO2 to the atmosphere can be minimized is by capturing and subsequently using it for other purposes. For instance, CO2 is an excellent C1 & C2 feedstock and can be transformed into valuable chemicals like, urea, salicylic acid, dialkyl carbonate, cyclic carbonate, methane, ethanol, hydrocarbons, etc. Among these, cyclic carbonates are widely used industrial chemical. Significant applications of cyclic carbonates include 1) electrolytes in Li-ion batteries; 2) as high boiling polar and aprotic solvents 3) preparation of dialkyl carbonates 4) monomer for polycarbonate/polyurethane and more. The high thermodynamic stability of CO2 necessitates the use of suitable catalysts. There are several reports on the development of suitable catalysts which are efficient towards CO2 fixation but require high temperature or pressure or both in case of bulky or internal epoxides. In fact, use of renewable energy source like solar (light) instead of thermal might pave way to perform CO2 fixation under energetically favourable conditions. Though there are few reports, light mediated CO2 fixation is relatively less explored and a lot of opportunities from design of catalyst to substrate scope. For example, Aziridines are also promising candidates for CO2 fixation (less explored). In fact, the corresponding fixation products i.e. oxazolidinones have versatile applications in pharmaceutical industries and for chiral synthesis. Our major objective in this proposal is to develop catalysts for the Light-mediated efficient conversion of CO2 into value added chemicals. This approach is sustainable towards CO2 fixation and less explored compared to thermal fixation of CO2. We aim to develop 2D layered semiconductor materials which can absorb light in the UV-Vis-NIR region of the solar spectrum and efficiently convert them into heat. The 2D materials will be integrated or functionalized with molecules which are efficient towards CO2 adsorption and activation. The efficient light to heat conversion and the subsequent CO2 activation is expected to improve the reaction kinetics. We will explore a range of epoxides particularly bulky, internal epoxides and aziridines for the CO2 fixation study. We believe to develop efficient catalysts which are able to convert a range of epoxides into useful chemicals. |