CAREER: Studies of Catalytic Carbon Dioxide Reduction, Metallodithiolene Chemistry and Community Outreach to Build the Chemical Workforce

该奖项由无机、生物无机和有机金属化学项目和刺激竞争性研究实验项目（EPSCoR）颁发给杜兰大学的詹姆斯·p·多纳休教授，旨在解决减少二氧化碳（CO2）的合成和热力学挑战。二氧化碳是一种威胁我们社会、经济和环境安全的温室气体，因为它有可能通过全球变暖引发气候变化。将哪怕是一小部分人为二氧化碳转化为可运输和储存的化学燃料的能力将是有益的。二氧化碳减排的一个关键转化，也是最耗能的一个步骤，是转化为一氧化碳（CO）。多纳休实验室利用独特的、受生物无机启发的方法来催化二氧化碳到二氧化碳的还原。这项工作的更广泛的影响包括可能发展新的见解，了解大自然如何改变（并可能降低）阻碍二氧化碳被容易地用作燃料、药品和塑料的化学原料的动力学屏障。没有研究设施的当地小型学院的本科生在多纳休教授的实验室里工作。此外，化学演示系列已在新奥尔良小学重新开始。参与该项目的本科生既满足了杜兰大学新的公共服务学位要求，又激发了他们对小学和中学化学的好奇心。

This award by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program and the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) to Professor James P. Donahue of Tulane University addresses the synthetic and thermodynamic challenges of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that threatens our social, economic and environmental security because of its potential to induce climate change through global warming. The ability to transform even a small percentage of anthropogenic CO2 to chemical fuels that can be transported and stored would be beneficial. A key transformation in CO2 reduction, and the most energy intensive step, is the transformation to carbon monoxide (CO). The Donahue laboratory utilizes unique, bioinorganic-inspired approaches to catalytic CO2-to-CO reduction. The broader impacts of this work include the possible development of new insights into how nature has modified (and presumably lowered) the kinetic barrier that prevents CO2 from being easily utilized as a chemical feedstock for fuels, pharmaceuticals, and plastics. Undergraduate students from local small colleges that do not have access to research facilities are engaged in Professor Donahue's laboratories. Additionally, the chemistry demonstration series has been re-instated in New Orleans grade schools. The undergraduates involved in this project fulfill the requirements of a new public service degree requirement at Tulane Univeristy while sparking curiosity in chemistry at the grade school and middle school levels.