Multistep catalytic abiotic CO 2 conversion to sugars through C 1 intermediates
- Nathan Soland
- Jie Luo
- Arifin Luthfi Maulana
- Julian Feijoo
- Hye-Jin Jo
- Alexander M. Oddo
- Yu Shan
- Tianle Wang
- Geonhui Lee
- Jihoon Choi
- Wei-Shan Huynh
- Maria Fonseca Guzman
- Lihini Jayasinghe
- Cheng Zhu
- Yao Yang
- Peidong Yang
2025-08-26
Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to multicarbon (C n ) upgrading for commodity chemicals, fuel production, or artificial food synthesis using renewable energy input is a golden target for researchers in sustainable carbon emission reduction. Here, we explore and analyze a flexible modular roadmap for the task, utilizing sequential electro-, photo-, and organocatalysis to develop a strategy for CO 2 conversion using the key and elusive formaldehyde precursor of interest for sugar generation. We study the electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction to methanol in a flow cell and its discontinuous photooxidation to formaldehyde (PMOR) with excellent selectivity. Utilizing a highly active N- heterocyclic carbene catalyst enables tunable generation of C 4 –C 6 aldoses without undesirable byproducts, with carbon conversion yield reaching 60 to 80% for desired pentose, tetrose, and triose product mixtures and over 20% for hexose. This approach presents a roadmap for CO 2 valorization, aiming to bridge carbon waste streams with sustainable sugar synthesis and opening broad avenues for green chemical production.