Unraveling the C–C Coupling Mechanism on Dual-Atom Catalysts for CO₂/CO Reduction Reaction: The Critical Role of CO Hydrogenation

The electrochemical reduction reaction (RR) of CO to high value multicarbon products is highly desirable for carbon utilization. Dual transition metal atoms dispersed by N-doped graphene are able to be highly efficient catalysts for this process due to the synergy of the bimetallic sites for C-C coupling. In this work, we screened homonuclear dual-atom catalysts dispersed by N-doped graphene to investigate the potential in CO reduction to C₂₊ products by employing density functional theory calculations. We have demonstrated that the two adsorbed CO species on bimetallic sites cannot directly couple unless one of the CO molecules is hydrogenated. All the dual metal atom catalysts prefer a similar coupling mechanism, i.e., the asymmetric coupling of *CO on the bridged site and *CHO on the top site, while the Ni₂ and Cu₂ catalysts exhibit much better performance with moderate adsorption energies and low energy barriers. The enhanced activities are attributed to the decrease of the energy levels of *CO 2p states that weakens the metal-C bonding and thus facilitates the feasible C-C coupling with both low reaction energies and low barriers. These insights have revealed the significant role of the hydrogenation of CO species prior to the coupling step and may provide a theoretical perspective to understand the generation of C₂₊ products in the CO₂/CORR.