Novel artificial ionic cofactors for efficient electro-enzymatic conversion of CO2 to formic acid

The low yield of enzymatic conversion CO2 to formic acid as well the high cost and instability using natural cofactor (NADH) hamper large-scale application utilization. To address these issues improve production acid, six bipyridinium-based artificial cofactors were developed for further integrated with electrocatalytic regeneration production. All them did show a higher catalytic performance compared NADH. Particularly, 1,1′-bis(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl)-4,4′-bipyridinium bromine exhibit highest concentration 4.76 mM in 60 min, which is 47 times than that NADH also currently among reported literature. Thermodynamic analysis, electrochemical investigations, molecular dynamics simulations performed clarify structure-energy relationship functional salts rationalize how it affected by different groups. This study gives deep insight into role reactions can clearly promote development novel bioelectrochemical CO2.