Electrophile–Nucleophile Paired Heteronuclear Dual‐Site for Selective CO <sub>2</sub> Photoreduction to Ethanol via Oxygen‐Tethered Asymmetric C–C Coupling

ABSTRACT Photocatalytic CO 2 reduction to valuable multicarbon products like ethanol is a promising strategy for solar energy conversion, yet remains challenged by kinetically constrained C–C coupling and competitive C–O cleavage toward ethylene. Herein, an electrophile‐nucleophile pairing strategy is developed by constructing atomically Cu–Zr heteronuclear dual sites within a porphyrinic framework, which can simultaneously reduce repulsion for C–C coupling and strengthen the C–O bond. The electron‐deficient Zr, as a strong oxygen‐affixed anchor, stabilizes critical *OCH intermediates via O‐coordination, while adjacent electron‐rich Cu sites drive *CO adsorption—inducing charge asymmetry between *OCH and *CO for kinetically favored dimerization. Subsequent hydrogenation selectively proceeds toward ethanol due to enhanced Zr–O stabilization that prevents C–O scission. The optimized catalyst achieved a near‐unity ethanol selectivity at 87.8 µmol·g −1 ·h −1 using water as a scavenger under a CO 2 pressure of 0.5 MPa, which further increased to 195.1 µmol·g −1 ·h −1 at 1.5 MPa. This work establishes mismatched electrophile‐nucleophile pairs as a versatile design principle for steering photocatalytic CO 2 reduction toward value‐added multicarbon products.

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Publication Details

Journal
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Published
2026-07-02
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.3999411
Primary Topic
CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Electrophile–Nucleophile Paired Heteronuclear Dual‐Site for Selective CO 2 Photoreduction to Ethanol via Oxygen‐Tethered Asymmetric C–C Coupling

Bingzhang Lu, Yuanjian Zhang, Jianyu Han, Yafeng Wu et al.
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
article

Electrophile–Nucleophile Paired Heteronuclear Dual‐Site for Selective CO 2 Photoreduction to Ethanol via Oxygen‐Tethered Asymmetric C–C Coupling

Bingzhang Lu, Yuanjian Zhang, Jianyu Han, Yafeng Wu, Songqin Liu, Tianyi Huang
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Photocatalytic CO 2 reduction to valuable multicarbon products like ethanol is a promising strategy for solar energy conversion, yet remains challenged by kinetically constrained C–C coupling and competitive C–O cleavage toward ethylene. Herein, an electrophile‐nucleophile pairing strategy is developed by constructing atomically Cu–Zr heteronuclear dual sites within a porphyrinic framework, which can simultaneously reduce repulsion for C–C coupling and strengthen the C–O bond. The electron‐deficient Zr, as a strong oxygen‐affixed anchor, stabilizes critical *OCH intermediates via O‐coordination, while adjacent electron‐rich Cu sites drive *CO adsorption—inducing charge asymmetry between *OCH and *CO for kinetically favored dimerization. Subsequent hydrogenation selectively proceeds toward ethanol due to enhanced Zr–O stabilization that prevents C–O scission. The optimized catalyst achieved a near‐unity ethanol selectivity at 87.8 µmol·g −1 ·h −1 using water as a scavenger under a CO 2 pressure of 0.5 MPa, which further increased to 195.1 µmol·g −1 ·h −1 at 1.5 MPa. This work establishes mismatched electrophile‐nucleophile pairs as a versatile design principle for steering photocatalytic CO 2 reduction toward value‐added multicarbon products.

Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Southeast University (BD), Southeast University (CN), Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 21%
CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
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Electrophile–Nucleophile Paired Heteronuclear Dual‐Site for Selective CO <sub>2</sub> Photoreduction to Ethanol via Oxygen‐Tethered Asymmetric C–C Coupling — Bingzhang Lu, Yuanjian Zhang, et al. · Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS