View article

The CO₂ electroreduction reaction (CO2RR) is a promising avenue to convert greenhouse gases into high-value fuels and chemicals, in addition to being an attractive method for storing intermittent renewable energy. Although polycrystalline Cu surfaces have long been known to be unique in their capabilities of catalyzing the conversion of CO₂ to higher-order C1 and C2 fuels, such as hydrocarbons (CH₄, C₂H₄, etc.) and alcohols (CH₃OH, C₂H₅OH), product selectivity remains a challenge. Rational design of more selective catalysts would greatly benefit from a mechanistic understanding of the complex, multiproton, and multielectron conversion of CO₂. In this study, we select three metal catalysts (Pt, Au, Cu) and apply in situ surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRAS) and ambient-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS), coupled to density-functional theory (DFT) calculations, to …