Metal−Organic Framework Supported Low‐Nuclearity Cluster Catalysts for Highly Selective Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction to Ethanol

Abstract It is still a great challenge to achieve high selectivity of ethanol in CO 2 electroreduction reactions (CO 2 RR) because of the similar reduction potentials and lower energy barrier of possible other C 2+ products. Here, we report a MOF‐based supported low‐nuclearity cluster catalysts (LNCCs), synthesized by electrochemical reduction of three‐dimensional (3D) microporous Cu‐based MOF, that achieves a single‐product Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 82.5 % at −1.0 V (versus the reversible hydrogen electrode) corresponding to the effective current density is 8.66 mA cm −2 . By investigating the relationship between the species of reduction products and the types of catalytic sites, it is confirmed that the multi‐site synergism of Cu LNCCs can increase the C−C coupling effect, and thus achieve high FE of CO 2 –to–ethanol. In addition, density functional theory (DFT) calculation and operando attenuated total reflectance surface‐enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy further confirmed the reaction path and mechanism of CO 2 –to–EtOH.