Coupling *CO Protonation on Cu Single Atoms With H 2 O Dissociation on Bi Nanoclusters for Synergistic CO 2 ‐to‐Methanol Electrosynthesis
ABSTRACT The electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to methanol (CH 3 OH) represents a promising strategy for mitigating global warming and energy shortages. However, the rational design of high‐performance electrocatalysts for selective CO 2 ‐to‐CH 3 OH conversion remains challenging. Herein, we construct a dual‐site catalyst featuring Cu single atoms (Cu SAs ) and Bi nanoclusters (Bi NCs ) co‐anchored on a hierarchical porous nitrogen‐doped carbon (NC) support (Cu SAs Bi NCs /NC). It delivers a high CH 3 OH Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 73.6% with a stability of 120 h in an H‐cell, and reaches a CH 3 OH partial current density of 106.6 mA cm −2 with 82% FE in a flow cell. The excellent performance is attributed to a synergistic mechanism: Cu SAs promote the generation and protonation of the key *CO intermediate, while Bi NCs facilitate H 2 O dissociation to supply *H to adjacent Cu sites. Their electronic interaction strengthens *CO adsorption and lowers its protonation barrier at Cu sites, while accelerating H 2 O activation at Bi sites. Furthermore, the confinement effect of the hierarchical pore structure in the NC support facilitates the enrichment of *CO intermediate and stabilizes the catalyst. This work establishes a conceptual framework for developing synergistic electrocatalysts through precise atomic‐scale component integration, offering an appealing strategy to boost CH 3 OH production by simultaneously tuning *CO adsorption/protonation and H 2 O dissociation.
Authors
- Wenlei Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6110-993X)
- Xuanzhao Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5991-8196)
- Tonglin Yang
- Quan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2846-0427)
- Fangqi Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1302-826X)
- Haoming Yu
Institutions
- Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse (CN)
- Hubei Normal University (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science (CN)
- Monash University (AU)
- Nanjing University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Published
- 2026-09-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.78736
- Primary Topic
- CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00