Factors Influencing the Performance of Copper-Bearing Catalysts in the CO₂ Reduction System

In the face of the increasingly serious greenhouse effect and climate warming, carbon dioxide reduction (CO2RR) technology, which can produce valuable chemicals and fuels while consuming CO2, has become the focus of technology development. However, in the process of CO2 conversion into high-value products, it is still a challenge for electrocatalytic materials to achieve high efficiency and selectivity while inhibiting the byproducts of the hydrogen evolution reaction. These challenges can be solved by clarifying the factors regulating the catalytic performance of the CO2RR. With this background, we divided copper-bearing catalysts into bulk phase catalyst, copper-bearing compound catalyst, alloy catalyst, and single-atom catalyst and summarized the development status of each system in recent years. In addition, we further discussed the mechanisms affecting the performance of the CO2RR to help design catalysts with more effective selectivity. We hope this Review will inspire and encourage researchers to develop copper-bearing catalysts with better CO2RR performance.