1.

Principal Current Uses of Carbon Dioxide

1

2.

Utilization of CO₂ in Synthetic Chemistry

2

2.1

CO₂ as a Solvent

3

2.2

Reactivity of CO₂

3

2.3

Thermodynamic Barriers to CO₂ Utilization

4

2.3.1

Overcoming the Thermodynamics

4

2.4

Conversion of CO₂ to Fuels:  Direct Hydrogenation

5

Conversion of CO₂ to Fuels:  Indirect Hydrogenation

6

2.5.1

CO₂ Reduction:  Thermodynamic and Kinetics Issues

6

2.5.2.1

Electrochemical Reduction

6

2.5.2

Homogeneous catalysts of Carbon Dioxide Reduction

7

2.5.3

Transition Metal Catalysts

7

2.5.4

Electrochemical Systems

7

2.5.5

Photochemical Systems

8

2.5.5.1

Photoinduced Charge Transfer with Transition Metal

8

Complexes

8

2.5.6

Comparison of Electrochemical and Photochemical Systems

9

3.

Opportunities

10

4.

Acknowledgement

10

5.

References

10