Progress in electrochemical reduction of CO2 by bimetallic materials with high selectivity

In recent years, the global environmental problems caused by excessive emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) have become severe gradually, which attract widespread concern all over the world. The electrochemical reduction of CO2 to clean energy and high-value chemicals not only can effectively alleviate greenhouse effect, but also provide an alternative to solve the energy crisis. The reaction principle of electrochemical reduction of CO2 was briefly described in this review, and some binary metal catalysts with high product selectivity reported in recent years were classified and summarized. The influences of the bimetallic materials physico-chemical properties, including element and composite, atomic ratio, microscopic morphology, particle size, etc. on CO2 reduction performance were reviewed, and the explanation of high selectivity for partial typical catalysts derived from DFT calculation was presented. Finally, the main problems and future research challenges for the selective conversion of CO2 on bimetallic catalysts with high efficiency were also discussed.