Oral Presentation

Molybdenum and tungsten-containing formate dehydrogenases: aiming to inspire a catalyst for carbon dioxide utilization

Luisa Maia, Isabel Moura, José Moura

We propose to use formate dehydrogenase (FDH) enzymes to convert the atmospheric carbon dioxide into formate. Contrary to chemical catalysts, FDHs have the advantage of being specific, yielding only one product (formate) and working as homogeneous catalysts.

FDHs catalyse the reversible two-electron oxidation of formate to carbon dioxide and we have been involved in characterising the kinetics and reaction mechanism, at atomic level, of FDHs purified from sulfate-reducing bacteria.

Development of new synthetic catalysts inspired on the FDHs chemical features is also envisaged.