Boosting Electrochemical CO2 Reduction on Metal–Organic Frameworks via Ligand Doping

Electrochemical CO2 reduction relies on the availability of highly efficient and selective catalysts. Herein, we report a general strategy to boost the activity of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) towards CO2 reduction via ligand doping. A strong electron-donating molecule of 1,10-phenanthroline was doped into Zn-based MOFs of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) as CO2 reduction electrocatalyst. Experimental and theoretical evidences reveal that the electron-donating nature of phenanthroline enables a charge transfer, which induces adjacent active sites at the sp2 C atoms in the imidazole ligand possessing more electrons, and facilitates the generation of *COOH, hence leading to improved activity and Faradaic efficiency towards CO production.