While Cu electrodes are a versatile material in the electrochemical production of desired hydrocarbon fuels, Cu binary alloy electrodes are recently proposed to further tune reaction directionality and, more importantly, overcome the intrinsic limitation of scaling relations. Despite encouraging empirical demonstrations of various Cu‐based metal alloy systems, the underlying principles of their outstanding performance are not fully addressed. In particular, possible phase segregation with concurrent composition changes, which is widely observed in the field of metallurgy, is not at all considered. Moreover, surface‐exposed metals can easily form oxide species, which is another pivotal factor that determines overall catalytic properties. Here, the understanding of Cu binary alloy catalysts for CO₂ reduction and recent progress in this field are discussed. From the viewpoint of the thermodynamic stability of the alloy system and elemental mixing, possible microstructures and naturally generated surface oxide species are proposed. These basic principles of material science can help to predict and understand metal alloy structure and, moreover, act as an inspiration for the development of new binary alloy catalysts to further improve CO₂ conversion and, ultimately, achieve a carbon‐neutral cycle.

中文翻译：

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定义用于电化学CO2转化的铜二元合金催化剂设计的材料数据库

尽管Cu电极是电化学生产所需烃类燃料的通用材料，但最近提出了Cu二元合金电极可进一步调整反应方向性，更重要的是克服了比例关系的固有局限性。尽管令人鼓舞地进行了各种基于铜的金属合金系统的经验论证，但仍未完全解决其出色性能的基本原理。特别地，根本没有考虑在冶金领域中广泛观察到的伴随同时的成分变化的可能的相偏析。此外，表面暴露的金属很容易形成氧化物，这是决定整体催化性能的另一个关键因素。在这里，对用于CO ₂的Cu二元合金催化剂的理解讨论了该领域的减排和最新进展。从合金体系的热力学稳定性和元素混合的角度出发，提出了可能的微观结构和自然产生的表面氧化物。这些材料科学的基本原理可以帮助预测和理解金属合金的结构，并且可以作为开发新型二元合金催化剂的灵感，以进一步提高CO ₂转化率，并最终实现碳中和循环。