Multiscale CO₂ Electrocatalysis to C₂₊ Products: Reaction Mechanisms, Catalyst Design, and Device Fabrication

Electrosynthesis of value-added chemicals, directly from CO₂, could foster achievement of carbon neutral through an alternative electrical approach to the energy-intensive thermochemical industry for carbon utilization. Progress in this area, based on electrogeneration of multicarbon products through CO₂ electroreduction, however, lags far behind that for C₁ products. Reaction routes are complicated and kinetics are slow with scale up to the high levels required for commercialization, posing significant problems. In this review, we identify and summarize state-of-art progress in multicarbon synthesis with a multiscale perspective and discuss current hurdles to be resolved for multicarbon generation from CO₂ reduction including atomistic mechanisms, nanoscale electrocatalysts, microscale electrodes, and macroscale electrolyzers with guidelines for future research. The review ends with a cross-scale perspective that links discrepancies between different approaches with extensions to performance and stability issues that arise from extensions to an industrial environment.