Despite substantial effort, no one has succeeded in efficiently producing methanol from CO2 using homogeneous photocatalytic systems. We are pursuing reaction schemes based on a sequence of hydride-ion transfers to carry out stepwise reduction of CO2 to methanol. We are using hydride-ion transfer from photoproduced C-H bonds in metal complexes with bio-inspired ligands (i.e., NADH-like ligands) that are known to store one proton and two electrons.

We are carrying out coordinated theoretical and experimental studies of toward photochemical water splitting using band-gap-narrowed semiconductors (BGNSCs) with attached multi-electron molecular water oxidation and hydrogen production catalysts. We focus on the coupling between the materials properties and the H{sub 2}O redox chemistry, with an emphasis on attaining a fundamental understanding of the individual elementary steps in the following four processes: (1) Light-harvesting and charge-separation of stable oxide or oxide-derived semiconductors for solar-driven water splitting, including the discovery and characterization of the behavior of such materials at the aqueous interface; (2) The catalysis of the four-electron water oxidation by dinuclear hydroxo transition-metal complexes with quinonoid ligands, and the rational search for improved catalysts; (3) Transfer of the design principles learned from the elucidation of the DuBois-type hydrogenase model catalysts in acetonitrile to the rational design of two-electron hydrogen production catalysts for aqueous solution; (4) Combining these three elements to examine the function of oxidation catalysts on BGNSC photoanode surfaces and hydrogen production catalysts on cathode surfaces at the aqueous interface to understand the challenges to the efficient coupling of the materials functions.