A bioinspired metal–organic helicate drives electrocatalytic ethane production from carbon dioxide

Abstract

We designed the metal–organic cage electrocatalyst H1, which activates the in situ-formed adduct between CO₂ and piperazine via host–guest encapsulation, thereby significantly lowering the CO₂ reduction potential and achieving the lowest potential for CO₂ to ethane conversion of −0.13 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). The catalytic system delivers a faradaic efficiency (FE) of 36.8% for C₂H₆ while maintaining stable performance over 20 hours of continuous operation.