Geminal-Cu Catalysts Drive Efficient C-C Coupling to Boost Ethylene Production via Electrochemical CO2 Reduction

Abstract

Single-atom catalysts have emerged as promising materials for CO2RR. This study explores geminal copper catalysts for the CO2RR into ethylene. The adjacent Cu-Cu sites facilitate ethylene formation by allowing thermodynamically favorable C-C coupling. Notably, the geminal copper catalysts achieved a faradaic efficiency (FE) of 20.22% for ethylene production, outperforming isolated copper catalysts, which exhibited an FE of only 9.36%. These results were further confirmed via density functional theory (DFT) calculations.