Tailor-made Molecular Cobalt Catalyst System for the Selective Transformation of Carbon Dioxide to Dialkoxymethane Ethers.

Herein a non-precious transition-metal catalyst system for the selective synthesis of dialkoxymethane ethers from carbon dioxide and molecular hydrogen is presented. The development of a tailored catalyst system based on cobalt salts in combination with selected Triphos ligands and acidic co-catalysts enabled a synthetic pathway, avoiding the oxidation of methanol to attain the formaldehyde level of the central CH2 unit. This unprecedented productivity based on the molecular cobalt catalyst is the first example of a non-precious transition-metal system for this transformation utilizing renewable carbon dioxide sources.