Cascade Catalysis for CO₂ Upgrading to Long-Chain Products

Cascade catalytic conversion of CO₂ has recently emerged as a transformative strategy for multilevel CO₂ valorization. By integration of electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction with thermocatalytic and/or biocatalytic processes, this approach enables stepwise construction of complex products from simple carbon feedstocks. The electrocatalytic stage supplies key intermediates or upstream products such as CO, formate, formaldehyde, or ethanol, which can be further converted into value-added multicarbon products including sugars, polymers, and other fine chemicals through downstream coupling. Recent demonstrations, ranging from CO₂-to-sugar and CO₂-to-polyketone conversions to artificial CO₂-to-polymer biocatalytic pathways, have demonstrated the great potential of cascade strategies in bridging electro-, thermo-, and biochemistry. This Outlook discusses recent progress in electrochemical cascade CO₂ conversion and outlines the key design goals for this field, including full-cascade performances, coupled catalyst-reaction optimizations, mechanistic understanding across complex interfaces, and integrated reactor architectures.