Bioinspired Metal-Organic Helicate Drives Electrocatalytic Ethane Production from Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

We designed an enzymatic metal-organic cages (MOCs) H1 electrocatalysts, which activates the in situ formed adduct between CO₂ and piperazine via host-guest encapsulation, thereby significantly lowering CO₂ reduction potential and achieving the lowest potential CO₂ to ethane conversion at -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.