Facet-Defined Dilute Metal Alloy Nanorods for Efficient Electroreduction of CO2 to n-Propanol

Electroreduction of CO 2 into liquid fuels is a compelling strategy for storing intermittent renewable energy. Here, we introduce a family of facet-defined dilute copper alloy nanocrystals as catalysts to improve the electrosynthesis of n -propanol from CO 2 and H 2 O. We show that substituting a dilute amount of weak-CO-binding metals into the Cu(100) surface improves CO 2 -to- n -propanol activity and selectivity by modifying the electronic structure of catalysts to facilitate C 1 –C 2 coupling while preserving the (100)-like 4-fold Cu ensembles which favor C 1 –C 1 coupling. With the Au 0.02 Cu 0.98 champion catalyst, we achieve an n -propanol Faradaic efficiency of 18.2 ± 0.3% at a low potential of −0.41 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode and a peak production rate of 16.6 mA·cm –2 . This study demonstrates that shape-controlled dilute-metal-alloy nanocrystals represent a new frontier in electrocatalyst design, and precise control of the host and minority metal distributions is crucial for elucidating structure–composition–property relationships and attaining superior catalytic performance.