Electrochemical CO2 Reduction on Transition-Metal Chalcogenide Catalysts: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

The electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) converting CO2 to value-added chemicals and fuels to close the carbon cycle provides a means to solve the problem of fossil energy shortage and environmental pollution. Recently, the understanding of the intrinsic mechanism of CO2RR has become deeper, which has inspired researchers to design high-performance and low-cost catalysts. Because of the unique crystal structure, electrical property, chemical component, and energy band features, the CO2RR research using transition-metal chalcogenides (TMCs) as catalysts has flourished in the past decades. The excellent electronic properties of TMC materials are beneficial to electron transport and the adsorption of reaction intermediates; multiple phase structures make it easy to adjust the physical and chemical properties of TMC materials; the appropriate band gap will affect the d-orbital electron filling, which is directly relevant to the CO2RR reactive sites. Here, we survey recent key progress in CO2RR using TMC catalysts and focus on the catalytic activity, stability, and reaction mechanism. We highlight the active sites of TMC catalysts and discuss the design principles of high-efficiency TMC catalysts (e.g., adjusting catalyst morphology, phase structure, band gap, and chemical composition). We end this Review by outlining the challenges as well as offering our personal perspectives on the future research directions in this promising field.

Automated summary

Recent research progress has shown that using transition-metal chalcogenides (TMCs) as catalysts for the electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) has flourished, with their excellent electronic properties, multiple phase structures, and appropriate band gap beneficial for adjusting physical and chemical properties and affecting reactive sites.