Structural Regulating of Cu-Based Metallic Electrocatalysts for CO₂ to C₂₊ Products Conversion

Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO₂RR) to highly value-added multi-carbon (C₂₊) fuels or chemicals is a promising pathway to address environment issues and energy crisis. In the periodic table, Cu as only the candidate can convert CO₂ to C₂₊ products such as C₂H₄ and C₂H₅OH due to the suitable absorption energy to reaction intermediate. However, application of Cu is limited for its low activity and poor selectivity. The tandem catalytic strategy can effectively solve the problems caused by single copper catalyst. In tandem catalysis, how to promote the formation, transport, adsorption and coupling of the important intermediate CO is the key issue to improve the selectivity of C₂₊ products. Regulating the structure of Cu-based bimetallic can effectively promote these processes to Electrochemical CO₂RR on account of its synergistic effect, electronic effect and interfacial interaction. In this review, we systematically summarized the relationship between structure of Cu-based bimetallic catalysts with performance of electrochemical CO₂RR. More importantly, we reveal that different Cu-based bimetallic structures enhance the activity and selectivity of the catalysts by regulating the processes such as the transport and adsorption of the reaction intermediate CO. Then, we proposed well-effective strategies to rationally design Cu-based metallic catalysts. Finally, we put forward some challenges and opportunities that Cu-based bimetallic catalysts would face in the development of electrochemical CO₂RR technology in the future.