Volume 5 Issue 4, April 2022

Selective electroreduction of CO₂-derived CO presents an opportunity to produce sustainable fuels and chemicals; however, its performance has been below practical levels. Now, an ordered Cu–Pd bimetallic catalyst has been developed for selective electroreduction of CO to acetate at an industrially relevant activity.

Low-temperature CO₂ electrolysis is increasingly attractive for the production of sustainable electrofuels and electrochemicals as intensified research keeps pushing performance higher. Recent efforts on system engineering now offer solutions to downstream purification challenges, taking this technology one step closer to maturity.

Electrocatalytic CO reduction presents a route to low-temperature acetate production, but activity and efficiency remain below practical levels. Here, the authors present an intermetallic compound with stable, atomically ordered Cu–Pd pairs that facilitates an acetate pathway and delivers 70% Faradaic efficiency at 425 mA cm⁻².

The relationship between product selectivity and catalyst structure under dynamic reaction conditions has proved difficult to interpret in electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction. Here, the authors combine operando X-ray techniques with high time resolution to investigate control over product selectivity using potential pulses.

Acidic media provide an opportunity to alleviate carbonate formation in electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction but increase competition from H₂ evolution. This study demonstrates that alkali cations in acidic media suppress H₂ evolution leading to high Faradaic efficiency for carbon-based products and models the physical effects that lead to this result.

High-performance approaches for terpenoid discovery and characterization in fungi are lacking. Now, a fully automated and high-throughput biofoundry is developed using Aspergillus oryzae as chassis for efficient genome mining and biosynthetic pathway analysis of bioactive terpenoids.

Crossover of CO₂, in the form of carbonate, from the cathode to the anodic compartment places a major limitation on carbon efficiency in traditional CO₂ electrolysis cells. Here, the authors place a porous solid electrolyte layer between the compartments, where protonation of carbonate during CO₂ electrolysis allows recovery of over 90% of the lost CO₂ gas.

Atom trapping is a well-established route to prepare single-atom catalysts. Here the authors propose a reverse atom-trapping strategy in which surface strontium atoms of LSCF fuel cell cathodes are extracted by MoO₃, forming single strontium vacancies on LSCF in a controllable manner and tuning its performance for the oxygen reduction reaction.

Single-atom catalysts consisting of isolated iron sites on a nitrogen-doped carbon matrix (Fe–N–C) are very promising cathode catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), but it is challenging to achieve a high density of single iron sites. Now, a synthetic approach is introduced to afford high-density Fe–N–C catalysts with a high PEMFC performance.

Bases play a fundamental role in several iconic coupling reactions in organic chemistry but are simultaneously responsible for limitations, such as functional group tolerance. Now, a broadly applicable solution is presented that uses non-innocent electrophiles equipped with an encrypted base.

Ground state destabilization is often evoked as a possible explanation of orotidine-5′-phosphate decarboxylase catalysis. Now, high-resolution structures of this enzyme provide time-resolved snapshots along its reaction coordinate revealing that transition-state stabilization by electrostatic interactions drives its reactivity.

Catalyst development in academia focuses on performance metrics, giving only secondary attention to costs despite their relevance for commercialization. Here, the authors analyse the properties of a handy and free cost estimation tool that can inform the early stages of catalysis research.