Ligand-Hybridization Engineering Enabling Stable Cuδ+ for Durable CO2 Electroreduction to C2+ Products

Electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) offers a sustainable route to convert CO2 into value-added multi-carbon (C2+) chemicals using renewable electricity. Copper (Cu) is considered as the promising catalyst for generating C2+ products, but suffers from low Faradaic efficiency (FE) and poor stability. Herein, a ligand-hybridization strategy on Cu-2(OH)(3)NO3 (CuON) to precisely regulate the coordination environment of Cu sites by partially substituting hydroxyl or nitrate with acetate ligands is demonstrated. The ligand hybridization facilitates the electron delocalization across Cu sites and the coordinated acetate ligands, and induces the formation and stabilization of active Cu delta+ species, thereby boosting efficient and stable C-C coupling for selective C2+ production. Impressively, acetate-hybridized CuON catalyst (AH-CuON) exhibits superior FE up to 74.7% at a high current density of 400 mA cm(-2) toward C2+ products, while maintaining stability for 20 h toward CO2RR. Significantly, this study offers a new strategy for designing highly efficient and stable Cu-based CO2RR catalysts toward C2+ products.