Leveraging Intermediates for Selective Acidic CO 2 ‐to‐CH 4 Electroreduction via Synergistic Cu‐Based Single Atoms and Subnanoparticles

ABSTRACT Electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) to value‐added hydrocarbon fuels, such as CH 4 , is desirable for a carbon‐neutral future but suffers from low selectivity, especially in acidic electrolytes with the competing hydrogen evolution reaction. Leveraging the hydrogenation of *CO intermediate with *H species, while avoiding its desorption or dimerization, is indispensable for selective CO 2 ‐to‐CH 4 electroreduction, which also remains challenging. Here, we report a synergistic Cu‐based catalyst (Cu 1+SNs ) with dual‐functional sites on mesoporous silica (SBA‐15), comprising isolated Cu single atoms (Cu 1 ‐SAs) and ensembled CuO x sub‐nanoparticles (CuO x ‐SNs), enables acidic CO 2 RR toward CH 4 production with high performance. The CuO x ‐SNs are responsible for CO 2 activation, and their elongated Cu─O─Cu bonds inhibit conventional C─C coupling process of *CO intermediates; while the adjacent Cu 1 ‐SAs play a pivotal role in water dissociation, providing abundant *H species for *CO hydrogenation to *CHO intermediate. Consequently, the synergistic Cu 1+SNs catalyst exhibits outstanding CO 2 RR‐to‐CH 4 performance in acidic electrolyte, reaching a Faradaic efficiency of 70.4%. Remarkably, the robust Cu 1+SNs catalyst also displays high selectivity (> 70%) in pH‐universal (acidic, neutral, and alkaline) electrolytes. This work paves a new pathway for designing optimal catalysts with structural heterogeneity toward selective product generation in multistep reactions.