Carbon dioxide may react with free or metal-bound hydroxide to afford products containing bicarbonate or carbonate, often captured as ligands bridging two or three metal sites. We report the kinetics and probable mechanism of an extremely rapid fixation reaction mediated by a planar nickel complex ½Ni II ðNNNÞðOHÞ 1− containing a tridentate 2,6-pyridinedicarboxamidate pincer ligand and a terminal hydroxide ligand. The minimal generalized reaction is M-OH þ CO 2 → M-OCO 2 H; with variant M, previous rate constants are ≲10 3 M −1 s −1 in aqueous solution. For the present bimolecular reaction, the (extrapolated) rate constant is 9.5 × 10 5 M −1 s −1 in N, N′-dimethylformamide at 298 K, a value within the range of k cat ∕K M ≈10 5 -10 8 M −1 s −1 for carbonic anhydrase, the most efficient catalyst of CO 2 fixation reactions. The enthalpy profile of the fixation reaction was calculated by density functional theory. The initial event is the formation of a weak precursor complex between the Ni-OH group and CO 2 , followed by insertion of a CO 2 oxygen atom into the Ni-OH bond to generate a four center Niðη 2 -OCO 2 HÞ transition state similar to that at the zinc site in carbonic anhydrase. Thereafter, the Ni-OH bond detaches to afford the Niðη 1 -OCO 2 HÞ fragment, after which the molecule passes through a second, lower energy transition state as the bicarbonate ligand rearranges to a conformation very similar to that in the crystalline product. Theoretical values of metric parameters and activation enthalpy are in good agreement with experimental values [ΔH ‡ ¼ 3.2ð5Þ kcal∕mol].nickel hydroxide | carbon dioxide-bicarbonate conversion | reaction mechanism R ecent research in this laboratory has been directed toward the attainment of synthetic analogues of the NiFe 3 S 4 active site of the enzyme carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (1, 2), which catalyzes the interconversion reactionIn the course of this work, we have prepared binuclear Ni II ∕Fe II bridged species with the intention of simulating the Ni…Fe component of the enzyme site that is the locus of substrate binding, activation, and product release (3). The nickel site in the binuclear species has been prepared separately in the form of the planar hydroxide complex ½NiðpyN 2 Me2 ÞðOHÞ 1− containing a N,N′-2,6-dimethylphenyl-2,6-pyridinedicarboxamidate dianion. Whereas bridging hydroxide ligation is common, terminal binding is not and in general is stabilized in divalent metal complexes by hydrogen bonding or by steric shielding, as is the case here. As reported recently (3), exposure of a solution of ½NiðpyN 2 Me2 ÞðOHÞ 1− to the atmosphere results in an instantaneous color change from red to red-orange. This results in the fixation of CO 2 as the bicarbonate complex ½NiðpyN 2 Me2 ÞðHCO 3 Þ 1− accompanied by the spectral changes in Fig. 1. Several features of the CO 2 fixation reaction 1 are noteworthy. The reactant is a terminal hydroxide species affording a unidentate bicarbonate (η 1 -OCO 2 H) product. Far more common is the reaction of bridged M II 2 ðμ-OHÞ 1;2 pr...