Nearly 100% CO Selectivity for CO₂ Reduction via Synergistic Engineering of Heteronuclear CuCo Dual Atoms

Monatomic catalysts demonstrate exceptional activity in CO₂ hydrogenation for mitigating the greenhouse effect and achieving carbon neutrality goals. However, single-atom catalysts are limited by having only one type of active site, resulting in unsatisfactory activity and selectivity. In this work, a heteronuclear dual-atom catalyst (CuCo_DA) is successfully synthesized using a dual-anchoring method and applied to CO₂ hydrogenation. The synergistic effect between Cu and Co atoms results in a remarkable CO selectivity of 99.1%, with a CO₂ conversion rate of 28.1%. The experimental results and theoretical calculations demonstrate that the incorporation of Co into the Cu monatomic catalyst enhances the adsorption of CO₂ and H₂ on the CuCo_DA surface throughout the reaction, thereby significantly promoting CO₂ conversion. Simultaneously, the cooperative effect minimizes the adsorption of CO* on the CuCo_DA surface and inhibits the formation of *CHO (a key intermediate for methane generation), which suppresses the further hydrogenation of CO₂. This results in an extremely high selectivity of CO. This study provides a general strategy for constructing dual-heteronuclear catalysts incorporating multiple metal species and highlights the critical importance of synergistic interactions between adjacent single atoms in the development of advanced catalysts.