Dual spillover of carbon monoxide and hydrogen initiates tandem urea electrosynthesis

Electrochemical urea synthesis from CO2 and NO3− provides a sustainable alternative to industrial processes, yet remains challenged by inefficient C-N coupling and protonation. Here, we present a tandem urea electrosynthesis pathway over copper-supported palladium hydride (PdHx/Cu) through a dual spillover of CO* and H*. This pathway undergoes efficient CO2-to-CO* conversion on PdHx and facile NO3−-to-NO* conversion on Cu. Crucially, rapid spillover of CO* (from PdHx surface) and H* (from PdHx lattice) to Cu facilitates key C-N intermediate (OCNO*) formation and protonation, respectively. Our catalysts demonstrated high performance, achieving a urea production rate of 236.5 ± 8.9 mmol gcat−1 h−1 with a Faradaic efficiency for urea of 62.6 ± 1.8%. With these catalysts, our scaled-up flow cell enabled continuous co-production of urea and formate with consistent profitability and much lower CO2 emissions compared to these for the present-day urea production route. This achievement represents a significant step for sustainable urea production. Here the authors engineer dual spillover of H* and CO* on PdHx/Cu to enhance urea electrosynthesis, where CO* spillover from PdHx surface to Cu facilitates initial C–N coupling while H* spillover from PdHx lattice to Cu promotes C–N intermediate protonation.