Lattice Strain Engineering Boosts CO₂ Electroreduction to C₂₊ Products

Regulating the binding effect between the surface of an electrode material and reaction intermediates is essential in highly efficient CO₂ electro-reduction to produce high-value multicarbon (C₂₊) compounds. Theoretical study reveals that lattice tensile strain in single-component Cu catalysts can reduce the dipole–dipole repulsion between *CO intermediates and promotes *OH adsorption, and the high *CO and *OH coverage decreases the energy barrier for C−C coupling. In this work, Cu catalysts with varying lattice tensile strain were fabricated by electro-reducing CuO precursors with different crystallinity, without adding any extra components. The as-prepared single-component Cu catalysts were used for CO₂ electro-reduction, and it is discovered that the lattice tensile strain in Cu could enhance the Faradaic efficiency (FE) of C₂₊ products effectively. Especially, the as-prepared Cu_TPA catalyst with high lattice tensile strain achieves a FE_C2+ of 90.9 % at −1.25 V vs. RHE with a partial current density of 486.1 mA cm⁻².