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Updated: Mar 28, 2026

A Toolkit to Enable Hydrocarbon Conversion in Aqueous Environments

A Toolkit to Enable Hydrocarbon Conversion in Aqueous Environments

Published on: October 2, 2012

Programmable Oxygen-Ligand Fields Encode Atomic Cu Coordination for Pathway-Selective CO₂-Nitrate Conversion to Urea.

Chun Li¹, Vahid Shahed Gharahshiran¹, Jiarui Cui¹

¹Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Western University of Ontario, 1150 Richmond Street, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada.

|March 26, 2026

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers developed oxygen-ligand programming to control single-atom catalysts for efficient urea synthesis. This method precisely tunes copper catalysts on carbon nanotubes, improving electrocatalytic reactions and C-N coupling.

Keywords:

CO2 electrocatalytic conversion C−N coupling interface engineering nitrate utilization single-atom Cu catalyst urea electrosynthesis

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Published on: October 3, 2018

Area of Science:

Materials Science
Catalysis
Electrochemistry

Background:

Precise control over single-atom catalyst coordination is crucial for multielectron reactions.
Tailoring ligand environments is key to directing catalytic pathways.

Purpose of the Study:

To introduce oxygen-ligand programming for deterministic control of single-atom catalyst coordination.
To investigate the impact of programmed ligands on electrocatalytic C-N coupling for urea synthesis.

Main Methods:

Utilized tailored surface carbonyl, hydroxyl, and carboxyl groups as programmable ligands on carbon nanotubes.
Employed atomic layer deposition to create distinct Cu-O-C coordination motifs.
Characterized electronic configurations using X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

Main Results:

Oxygen-ligand programming precisely encoded coordination geometry and electronic structure of atomic Cu.
Different ligand motifs (hydroxyl, carboxyl, carbonyl) selectively stabilized key reaction intermediates.
Carbonyl-programmed motifs balanced CO and NH2 adsorption, enabling efficient C-N coupling.

Conclusions:

Oxygen-ligand programming offers a deterministic strategy for designing single-atom catalysts.
Achieved high urea formation rate (482 mg h⁻¹ gcat⁻¹) and Faradaic efficiency (61.2%) at -0.6 V.
This framework is broadly applicable for coordination-tailored catalysis and molecular pathway design in electrosynthesis.