Highly active and selective catalysis of copper diphosphine complexes for the transformation of carbon dioxide into silyl formate.

Copper diphosphine complexes have been found to be highly active and selective homogeneous catalysts for the hydrosilylation of CO2. The structure of the phosphine ligands strongly affects their catalytic activity. Turnover number (TON) reaches 70,000 after 24 hours with 1,2-bis(diisopropylphosphino)benzene as a ligand under 1 atmosphere of CO2. (1)H and (13)C NMR spectra, carried out under the reaction conditions, showed the reaction mechanism through insertion of CO2 into Cu-H to afford Cu/formate species.