Electrochemical CO₂ reduction (ECR) to commodity chemicals offers a promising way for mitigating the greenhouse effect and driving the transition from fossil-fuel dependence to a sustainable economy. To this end, the design and development of active and robust electrocatalysts is key. Here we report for the first time that incorporation of bismuth (Bi) single atoms on defective CuO could significantly enhance the ECR reaction to C₂H₄ by decreasing C–C coupling barriers. The overpotential for C₂H₄ production is lowered by at least 50 mV, along with a two-fold improvement in the faradaic efficiency, reaching 60% at 400 mA cm⁻². The high performance is maintained even after 20 h of consecutive electrolysis. Control experiments along with density functional theory calculations suggest that the joint incorporation of Bi and oxygen vacancies greatly promotes CO₂ adsorption and lowers C–C coupling energy barriers, thereby improving the C₂H₄ selectivity.

将电化学 CO ₂还原 (ECR) 转化为商品化学品为减轻温室效应和推动从依赖化石燃料向可持续经济转型提供了一种有前景的方法。为此，设计和开发活性强的电催化剂是关键。在这里，我们首次报道了在有缺陷的 CuO 上掺入铋 (Bi) 单原子可以通过降低 C-C 耦合势垒显着增强对 C ₂ H _{4的 ECR 反应。}C ₂ H ₄产生的过电位至少降低了 50 mV，同时法拉第效率提高了两倍，在 400 mA cm ^{-2时达到 60%}. 即使在连续电解 20 小时后仍能保持高性能。控制实验以及密度泛函理论计算表明，Bi 和氧空位的联合掺入极大地促进了 CO ₂的吸附并降低了 C-C 耦合能垒，从而提高了 C ₂ H ₄的选择性。