A covalency-aided electrochemical mechanism for CO2 reduction: the synergistic effect of copper and boron dual active sites drives the formation of a high-efficiency ethanol product

A covalency-aided electrochemical mechanism for the CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) is proposed for the first time by embedding nonmetallic element B on a Cu surface, in which p-block dopants have a significant impact on improving the catalytic activity.