Tailoring Activation Intermediates of CO 2 Initiates C–N Coupling for Highly Selective Urea Electrosynthesis

Electrocatalyzed reduction of CO2 and NO3– to synthesize urea is a highly desirable, but challenging reaction. The bottleneck of this reaction is the C–N coupling of CO2 and NO3– reduction intermediates. In particular, the uncertainty of CO2 multielectron reduction intermediates severely affects the selectivity and activity of C–N coupling processes involving multiple electron and proton transfers. Here, we present a novel tandem catalyst with two compatible single-atom active sites of Au and Cu on red phosphorus (RP-AuCu) that efficiently converts CO2 and NO3– to urea. Experimental and theoretical prediction results confirmed that the active center of Au on red phosphorus promotes electron transfer between…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 22302154, U22A20391
• NK
  National Key Research and Development Program of China

  Award: 2020YFA0710000
• P2
  Project 211

  Award: B23025