Boosting Formate\nProduction in Electrocatalytic CO<sub>2</sub> Reduction on Bimetallic\nCatalysts Enriched with In–Zn\nInterfaces

We present an effective strategy\nfor developing the dispersing\nstrong-binding metal In on the surface of weak-binding metal Zn, which\nmodulates the binding energy of the reaction intermediates and further\nfacilitates the efficient conversion of CO<sub>2</sub> to formate.\nThe In–Zn interface (In–Zn2) benefits from the formation\nof active sites through favorable orbital interactions, leading to\na Faradaic efficiency of 82.7% and a formate partial current density\nof 12.39 mA cm<sup>–2</sup>, along with stable performance\nfor over 15 h at −1.0 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode.\nBoth <i>in situ</i> Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy\nand density functional theory calculations show that the In–Zn\nbimetallic catalyst can deliver superior binding energy to the *OCHO\nintermediate, thereby fundamentally accelerating the conversion of\nCO<sub>2</sub> to formate. In addition, the exposed bimetallic interface\npromotes efficient capture and activation of CO<sub>2</sub> molecules\nand the dynamics within the In–Zn catalyst significantly reduce\nthe energy barrier associated with the generation of HCOO<sup>–</sup>, thus augmenting the selectivity and catalytic activity for formate\ngeneration.