<p>Silver is an extensively investigated electrode material for electrochemical CO<sub>2</sub> reduction owing to its high electrical conductivity and structural stability. However, a key limitation of silver catalysts is their weak adsorption of the *CO intermediate. This intrinsic constraint restricts the reaction primarily to two-electron pathways, hindering the formation of multi-electron products. Here we demonstrate that surface molecular modification can address this limitation. By anchoring bromothymol blue molecules onto the silver surface, we engineer a localized hydrogen-bonding network that stabilizes *CO intermediates via O···H–O interactions, prolonging their surface residence time. In situ spectroscopy and theoretical simulations reveal that this local microenvironment thermodynamically stabilizes *CO against desorption while kinetically facilitating its subsequent hydrogenation and C-C coupling. Consequently, the retained *CO undergoes deeper reduction pathways, generating CH<sub>4</sub>, C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub>, C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>5</sub>OH, and CH<sub>3</sub>COOH. At a current density of 400 mA cm<sup>−2</sup>, the Faradaic efficiency for multi-electron products reaches 24.2%. This work shifts the design paradigm from metal-centric electronic tuning to local microenvironment engineering, offering an alternative strategy for enabling multi-electron transfer on non-copper catalysts.</p>

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Hydrogen bond stabilized *CO intermediate enables CO2 electroreduction to multi-electron products on silver catalysts

  • Weiluo Zhang,
  • Yilei Zhang,
  • Da Wan,
  • Junrong Gao,
  • Shuling Zheng,
  • Jie He,
  • Huizhu Cai,
  • Xue Zhang,
  • Qi Hu,
  • Hengpan Yang,
  • Chuanxin He

摘要

Silver is an extensively investigated electrode material for electrochemical CO2 reduction owing to its high electrical conductivity and structural stability. However, a key limitation of silver catalysts is their weak adsorption of the *CO intermediate. This intrinsic constraint restricts the reaction primarily to two-electron pathways, hindering the formation of multi-electron products. Here we demonstrate that surface molecular modification can address this limitation. By anchoring bromothymol blue molecules onto the silver surface, we engineer a localized hydrogen-bonding network that stabilizes *CO intermediates via O···H–O interactions, prolonging their surface residence time. In situ spectroscopy and theoretical simulations reveal that this local microenvironment thermodynamically stabilizes *CO against desorption while kinetically facilitating its subsequent hydrogenation and C-C coupling. Consequently, the retained *CO undergoes deeper reduction pathways, generating CH4, C2H4, C2H5OH, and CH3COOH. At a current density of 400 mA cm−2, the Faradaic efficiency for multi-electron products reaches 24.2%. This work shifts the design paradigm from metal-centric electronic tuning to local microenvironment engineering, offering an alternative strategy for enabling multi-electron transfer on non-copper catalysts.