Recent progress on single-atom catalysts for CO2 electroreduction

Abstract: Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction (ECR) can convert CO2 into various value-added fuels or chemicals, thus becoming a promising route for balancing the carbon cycle and realizing the low-carbon economy. Recently, the single-atom catalysts (SACs) have emerged and flourished in the field of ECR due to their unsurpassed atom utilization efficiency and unexpected high catalytic performance. Analogy to the recipe for cuisine, this review gives a comprehensive description of the methods to prepare SACs for ECR, and outlines the pathway from CO2 to target products. Moreover, the SACs that exhibit high catalytic performance towards ECR are systematically summarized in the aspects of support material, ligands, coordination number, porous structure, and position, just like regulating the “ingredients” of soup base for transforming CO2. Finally, the challenge and perspective for further upgrading SACs in the ECR domain are expounded. It is hoped that this review would give a general recipe to develop highly efficient (delicious) SACs in ECR.