Surface and Interface Engineering for the Catalysts of Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction

The massive use of fossil fuels releases a great amount of CO2, which substantially contributes to the global warming. For the global goal of putting CO2 emission under control, effective utilization of CO2 is particularly meaningful. Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (eCO(2)RR) has great potential in CO2 utilization, because it can convert CO2 into valuable carbon-containing chemicals and feedstock using renewable electricity. The catalyst design for eCO(2)RR is a key challenge to achieving efficient conversion of CO2 to fuels and useful chemicals. For a typical heterogeneous catalyst, surface and interface engineering is an effective approach to enhance reaction activity. Herein, the development and research progress in CO2 catalysts with focus on surface and interface engineering are reviewed. First, the fundaments of eCO(2)RR is briefly discussed from the reaction mechanism to performance evaluation methods, introducing the role of the surface and interface engineering of electrocatalyst in eCO(2)RR. Then, several routes to optimize the surface and interface of CO2 electrocatalysts, including morphology, dopants, atomic vacancies, grain boundaries, surface modification, etc., are reviewed and representative examples are given. At the end of this review, we share our personal views in future research of eCO(2)RR.