Synergism between iron porphyrin and dicationic ionic liquids: tandem CO 2 electroreduction-carbonylation reactions.

Here, we report a simple procedure that drastically reduces the electrochemical E (Fe I /Fe 0 ) and E 0cat of the commercially available iron(III) tetraphenylporphyrin chloride (Fe III TPP·Cl) catalyst via a synergetic effect with the imidazolium dications of the ionic liquid electrolyte. This procedure enhanced the performance of catalytic systems in the electrochemical production of CO and enabled us to perform different tandem CO 2 reduction-carbonylation reactions under mild conditions.