Regulating Organic Modifiers on Metal-Based Catalysts for Enhanced Electrocatalytic CO₂ Reduction

Area of Science:

• Electrochemistry
• Materials Science
• Catalysis

Background:

• Electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2RR) is vital for chemical production and carbon cycling.
• Metal-based catalysts with organic modifiers show promise for improving CO2RR performance.
• Understanding organic modifier roles is key to advancing CO2RR technology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review recent advances in using organic modifiers to enhance metal-based CO2RR catalysts.
• To elucidate the mechanisms by which organic modifiers improve CO2RR.
• To discuss strategies for stable organic modifier-catalyst interfaces and future prospects.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of recent research on organic modifiers in CO2RR.
• Analysis of fundamental mechanisms: microenvironment control and intrinsic activity modulation.
• Examination of interface stability strategies.

Main Results:

• Organic modifiers enhance CO2RR by controlling local reactant/intermediate concentrations, pH, and electric fields.
• Modifiers also tune the intrinsic catalytic activity via crystal and electronic structure modulation.
• Stable interfaces are crucial for sustained performance.

Conclusions:

• Organic modifiers offer effective regulation of metal-based catalysts for CO2RR.
• Optimizing microenvironment and intrinsic properties leads to improved activity, selectivity, and stability.
• Further research on stable interfaces and rational design is needed for efficient CO2RR catalysts.