journal article·2026-01-13

Engineering an Ordered Intermediate Phase between Disordered Phases for CO 2 Reduction to Multicarbon Products

Xuan Zheng, Yi Lu, Jingwen Hu, Zechao Zhuang, Wenchao Zhang, Han Zhu

ACS Nano· Volume 20· Issue 1
Publisher page

Abstract

Electrochemical CO 2 reduction (CO 2 RR) to multicarbon (C 2 ) products provides a compelling pathway for carbon recycling and sustainable energy storage, yet achieving high C 2 selectivity remains a major challenge due to kinetic preference for C 1 products and the intrinsic difficulty of C–C bond formation. While bimetallic alloys are widely used to tune catalytic performance, their typically random atomic arrangements hinder precise control over active site electronic environments, leading to suboptimal C 1 /C 2 selectivity. Herein, we present a composition-dependent phase engineering strategy to synthesize ordered Au 1 Cu 1 intermetallic alloy, alongside disordered Au 3 Cu 1 and Au 1 Cu 3 alloys, via a polymer nanofiber-mediated approach. The long-range atomic ordering in Au 1 Cu 1 enables an optimized d-band center, critically balancing intermediate binding (e.g., *CO at −1.09 eV) for efficient C–C coupling over C 1 formation. This resulted in the Au 1 Cu 1 /CNFs catalyst reaching a peak Faradaic efficiency of 55.6% toward C 2 products at −0.5 V vs RHE. In situ characterizations and theoretical calculations confirm that its specific electronic and geometric configurations facilitate the lowest energy barrier for *CHO–*CO coupling. This work demonstrates precise atomic-level control in bimetallic alloy ordering, guiding the CO 2 RR toward valuable multicarbon products.
Source: openalex_inverted_index · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts · Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction · Carbon dioxide utilization in catalysis

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering

Jiangnan University

College of Science

Nanjing Forestry University

College of Energy

Xiamen University

School of Chemistry and Life Sciences

Suzhou University of Science and Technology

Funding

Basic Research Program of Jiangsu Province · Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities · National Natural Science Foundation of China

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