Electrolyte engineering regulating interfacial water structure of Cu2O catalyst to promote electrochemical C-C coupling reactions

Abstract

Here we engineer the solvated structure of metal cations by introducing dimethyl sulfoxide as an electrolyte additive to modulate the interfacial water environment. This tailored solvation faciliates faster proton-coupled electron transfer on Cu catalysts during CO2 activation and increases*CO intermediate absorption, thereby promoting C-C coupling toward C2H4 formation in the CO2 reduction reaction.