Tuning Multi‐Active Sites in Cu Catalyst via Ag/Ni Doping for Enhanced CO <sub>2</sub> Electroreduction to C <sub>2+</sub> Products
Electrochemical CO<sub>2</sub> reduction (ECR) to C<sub>2+</sub> products is a promising sustainable carbon conversion pathway, yet simultaneously achieving high Faradaic efficiency (FE) and current density remains a challenge. Herein, we found that creating Cu-Ag-Ni multi-metal sites could effectively modulate the adsorption energies of *H and *CO on the catalyst surface, thereby achieving highly efficient ECR to synthesize C<sub>2+</sub> products. In situ measurements coupling theoretical calculations indicated that by systematically altering the spatial arrangement and distribution of active sites in Cu-Ag-Ni catalysts, the electronic structure and the local *CO coverage on the Cu surface could be tuned, consequently steering the ECR to C<sub>2+</sub> pathway. In particular, Cu-Ag-Ni catalyst with dispersed multi-sites (Cu<sub>x</sub>AgNi DNPs) could more effectively reduce the energy barrier for C─C coupling than Cu-Ag-Ni catalyst with phase-separated multi-sites (Cu<sub>x</sub>AgNi PNPs). As a result, the Cu<sub>40</sub>AgNi DNPs catalyst with dispersed multi-sites yielded C<sub>2+</sub> products with a FE of 93.2% and a current density up to 818.1 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> at -1.38 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (vs. RHE), which are higher than most reported up to date for C<sub>2+</sub> production. This work provides a methodology for designing robust multi-metallic ECR catalysts with tailored multi-active site configurations.
Authors
- Jiapeng Jiao
- Chunjun Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3017-379X)
- Hailian Cheng
- Shuaiqiang Jia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7106-9791)
- Haihong Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6266-8290)
- Zhanghui Xia
- Mengke Dong
- Qinggong Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8730-8486)
- Cheng Xue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5991-0111)
- Xiaohong Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-8384)
- Mingyuan He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9078-8322)
- Ting Deng
- Buxing Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0440-809X)
Institutions
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (CN)
- East China Normal University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2025-04-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202501833
- Citations
- 12
- Primary Topic
- CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.36