Engineering electronic structures of nanomaterials toward carbon dioxide electroreduction

The electroreduction of CO₂ into valuable products holds the prospect for the shortage of fossil fuels and global warming. For the design of catalysts, manipulating the electronic structures of catalysts plays a vital role in the adsorption, activation, and desorption behaviors during the catalytic process. Here, we summarize recent progress in CO₂ electroreduction from the perspective of engineering electronic structures of catalysts. The strategies include vacancy engineering, heteroatom substitution, atomic layer regulation, sharp-tip effect, and interlayer bond length regulation. Particularly, combining with the experimental and theoretical results reported previously, we provide an atomic-level insight into the effect of electronic structure on CO₂ activation.