Identifying an Interfacial Stabilizer for Regeneration-Free 300 h Electrochemical CO Reduction to C Products.

The electrochemical CO reduction reaction (CORR) to produce high value-added hydrocarbons and oxygenates presents a sustainable and compelling approach toward a carbon-neutral society. However, uncontrollable migration of active sites during the electrochemical CORR limits its catalytic ability to simultaneously achieve high C selectivity and ultradurability. Here, we demonstrate that the generated interfacial CuAlO species can efficiently stabilize the highly active sites over the Cu-CuAlO-AlO catalyst under harsh electrochemical conditions without active sites regeneration for a long-term test. We show that this unique Cu-CuAlO-AlO catalyst exhibits ultradurable electrochemical CORR performance with an 85% C Faradaic efficiency for a 300 h test. Such a simple interfacial engineering design approach unveiled in this work would be adaptable to develop various ultradurable catalysts for industrial-scale electrochemical CORR.