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Updated: Sep 4, 2026

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Organic-Inorganic Grain Boundary Engineering for Highly Selective and Stable CO2 Electroreduction to Ethylene
Wasihun A Hika1,2, Karim Harrath3, Yingjie Guo1,4
1CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Electrocatalytic conversion of CO2 to ethylene (C2H4), the cornerstone of the chemical industry, offers a sustainable alternative to conventional energy-intensive steam cracking but remains limited by inefficient C-C coupling and competing hydrogen evolution reaction. Here, we report an organic-inorganic grain-boundary (OIGB) catalyst by embedding CuO nanodomains within a Cu-based metal-organic framework matrix, which creates well-defined electronically integrated interfaces that enable cooperative stabilization of *CO and *COH intermediates. The OIGB structure achieves a high Faradaic efficiency of ∼81% for CO2 electroreduction to C2H4 at an industrially relevant current density of 300 mA cm- 2, together with stable operation for over 100 h. Operando spectroscopy combined with computational calculations reveals a synergistic mechanism in which CuO nanodomains serve as local *CO generation sites while Cu-N coordination sites stabilize *COH species, associated with formation of the key *COH-CO intermediate for CO2 electroreduction to C2H4.
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