A reconstructed Cu2P2O7 catalyst for selective CO2 electroreduction to multicarbon products.

The electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) over Cu-based catalysts shows a great prospect with converting CO 2 into multicarbon (C 2+ ) fuels and chemicals. Herein, we introduce an A 2 M 2 O 7 structure into Cu-based catalyst through a solid-state reaction synthesis method. The Cu 2 P 2 O 7 catalyst is electrochemically reduced to metallic Cu with a significant structure evolution from grain aggregates to highly porous structure under CO 2 RR conditions. The reconstructed Cu 2 P 2 O 7 catalyst achieves a Faradaic efficiency of 73.6% for C 2+ products at an applied current density of 350 mA cm -2 , remarkably higher than the CuO counterparts. The reconstructed Cu 2 P 2 O 7 catalyst has high electrochemically active surface area and abundant defects and low-coordinated sites. In situ Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory calculation reveal that CO adsorption with bridge and atop configurations is largely improved on Cu with defects and low-coordinated sites, which decreased the energy barrier of C-C coupling reaction for C 2+ products.