Promoting CO-CO coupling via electron docking strategy for electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction to ethylene

Cu 2 Y 2 O 5 with asymmetric atomic distance distribution was investigated for the first time in CO 2 electroreduction reaction (CO 2 RR). The high electrophilicity of Y not only regulates the electronic structure of Cu, but also acts as an electron dock to attract CO*, promoting its toward Y and effectively protecting the stability of Cu 2+ during the reduction process. In a Flow cell, CYO-850 achieves an exceptionally high selectivity of 70 % for ethylene, accompanied by a high partial current density of 200 mA cm −2 . In-situ infrared spectroscopy and density functional theory results indicate that interaction between Cu and Y promotes the dimerization of *OCCO intermediates and directs the CO 2 reduction pathway towards ethylene. This is the first report on the use of Y element in the field of CO 2 reduction.