Recent Advances in Atomic-Level Engineering of Nanostructured Catalysts for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 into value-added chemicals provides a promising approach to mitigate climate change caused by CO2 from excess consumption of fossil fuels. As the CO2 molecule is chemically inert and the reaction kinetics is sluggish, efficient electrocatalysts are thus highly required for promoting the conversion of CO2. With great efforts devoted to improving the catalytic performance, the development of electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction has gone from bulk metals with poor control to nanostructures with atomic precision. Nanostructured electrocatalysts with atomic precision are believed to be capable of combining the advantages of heterogeneous and homogenous catalysts. In this review, the recent advances in designing nanostructured electrocatalysts at the atomic level for boosting the catalytic performance toward CO2 reduction and revealing the structure-property relationship are summarized. The challenges and opportunities in the near future are also proposed for paving the development of electrocatalytic CO2 reduction.