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Open research questions in CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts

102 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 648 CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • High viscosity of ionic liquids, which requires dilution to achieve high currents. Introduction of water as a dilutant, which can lead to hydrogen evolution reaction and lower Faradaic efficiency. Oxidative degradation of ionic liquids, which emphasizes the need to avoid ionic liquids specifically composed of nucleophilic anions in the anolyte.

    Key Experimental Considerations When Evaluating Functional Ionic Liquids for Combined Capture and Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 · 2024 · DOI

  • Further studies on the effects of IL concentration and CO 2 partial pressure on ECO 2 R activity. Investigation of other catholyte solvents and electrode materials for improved ECO 2 R performance. Development of more efficient and scalable methods for IL synthesis.

    Key Experimental Considerations When Evaluating Functional Ionic Liquids for Combined Capture and Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 · 2024 · DOI

  • This tailored architecture leads to dual functionality, demonstrating enhanced performance in both electrocarboxylation and the OER, which has not been explored in similar systems.

    Interface-Engineered AgCoAc on Ti3C2T x MXene as a Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Advancing CO2 Utilization and Oxygen Evolution · 2026 · DOI

  • The durability for long-term operation is currently inadequate for commercialization, however, and the underlying deactivation process remains elusive.

    Structural Transformation and Degradation of Cu Oxide Nanocatalysts during Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction · 2025 · DOI

  • Nevertheless, the intuitive impacts of ultralow coordination Cu sites on C 3 products are scarcely elucidated due to the lack of synthetic recipes for Cu with low coordination numbers and its vulnerability to aggregation under reductive potentials.

    Ultralow Coordination Copper Sites Compartmentalized within Ordered Pores for Highly Efficient Electrosynthesis of n-Propanol from CO2 · 2025 · DOI

  • This is partly because the factors that control the selectivity of CO 2 reduction beyond 2e – are not yet understood.

    Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to CH3OH Catalyzed by an Iron Porphyrinoid · 2025 · DOI

  • However, their performance under industrially relevant high current conditions is limited by the weak interaction between isolated Ni–N 4 sites and *COOH intermediates, restricting efficient CO 2 conversion.

    Enhanced *COOH Adsorption over Edge-Rich Ni–N 4 Sites for Efficient Acidic CO 2 Electroreduction · 2025 · DOI

  • Despite significant progress in developing sophisticated electrocatalysts, a well-designed electrolyte in conjunction with industrial catalysts is an attractive strategy to advance the industrialization process of electrocatalytic alkynol semihydrogenation, but remains unexplored.

    A Cosolvent Electrolyte Boosting Electrochemical Alkynol Semihydrogenation · 2025 · DOI

  • This catalytic instability impedes its practical application, yet little is known about the origin of the activity decay and viable solutions to circumvent it.

    Reactivating Molecular Cobalt Catalysts for Electrochemical CO 2 Conversion to Methanol · 2025 · DOI

  • Further studies on Au nanocatalysts of varying sizes indicate that the cation effect is independent of the catalytic sites.

    Ammonium Cation-Promoted CO 2 Electroreduction on Au in Acidic Media · 2025 · DOI

  • , H + vs H 2 O) and its impact on CO 2 RR selectivity in acidic electrolytes remains poorly understood.

    Immobilized Azole Layer Tunes Interfacial Hydrogen Source for CO2 Electroreduction in Strong Acid · 2025 · DOI

  • Heterostructure construction has been shown to be an effective strategy for producing multi‐carbon products, but the synergistic mechanisms between multiple active sites resulting from the reconstruction process remain unclear.

    Optimizing C─C Coupling on Cu 0 /Cu + /Ga Interfaces by Enhancing Active Hydrogen Absorption for Excellent CO 2 ‐to‐C 2+ Electrosynthesis · 2025 · DOI

  • Although bismuth catalysts enable accelerated electrochemical CO 2 -to-formate conversion, the intrinsic active sites and forming mechanisms under operating conditions remain elusive.

    Monitoring chalcogenide ions–guided in situ transform active sites of tailored bismuth electrocatalysts for CO 2 reduction to formate · 2025 · DOI

  • During the electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR), copper catalysts continuously undergo structural evolution, which is less controllable, and its impact on the product distribution of CO 2 RR remains unclear.

    Crystallinity-Directed In Situ Reconstruction of Cu–Al Oxides Yielding Tunable Cu δ+ Sites for Electrochemical CO 2 -to-C 2+ Conversion · 2025 · DOI

  • However, selectivity toward highly valuable C 2+ products is still insufficient for practical applications.

    Covalent Organic Framework Coupled with Atomically Precise Copper Nanoclusters for Efficient Tandem Electroreduction Reaction of CO 2 · 2025 · DOI

  • Abstract Although CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) has achieved significant progress in past years, the C2+ products are mainly limited to a few products, while many other products have rarely been reported in experiments with a limited understanding of the underlying mechanisms.

    Exploring Challenging C2+ Products During CO2 Reduction via Machine Learning Acceleration · 2025 · DOI

  • However, the efficient conversion of CH 4 to C 2 H 4 is severely limited by the high C–H bond energy of CH 4 and the slow kinetic process of C–C coupling.

    Constructing Asymmetric Dual Active Sites Through Bimetallic Synergy for Achieving Selective Photocatalytic Nonoxidative Coupling of Methane toward Ethylene · 2025 · DOI

  • Furthermore, our findings indicate that SnO remains underexplored in terms of its surface speciation and structure–activity relationships for the CO 2 RR compared to SnO 2 -based materials.

    Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction on SnO: Insights into C 1 Product Dynamic Distribution and Reaction Mechanisms · 2025 · DOI

  • However, their practical applications are limited by the fact that the symmetrical electron distribution at adjacent Cu sites leads to a strong repulsive force between adsorbed *C 1, which reduces catalytic efficiency.

    Tuning *CO–*CHO Dimerization via Twisted Electron Localization of Asymmetrically Coordinated Cu–Cu Dual Sites by P and N Scatterings Boosts CO 2 Electroreduction · 2025 · DOI

  • Heterogeneous dual-atom catalysts (DACs) in transition metal–nitrogen–carbon (M–N–C) frameworks demonstrate high tunability for electrochemical CO 2 reduction, yet the mechanistic origin of their metal composition-dependent selectivity remains elusive.

    Dynamic CO 2 Adsorption Reconfiguration Directs Product Branching on Heterogeneous Dual-Atom Catalysts · 2025 · DOI

  • Our aim is to encourage further research into the design of highly active and selective catalysts for ECR using polynuclear metal clusters.

    Metal Cluster Catalysts for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction · 2025 · DOI

  • Although various electrodes have been developed to convert diluted CO 2 to different products, the changes in mechanisms due to the reduction of the CO 2 concentration have rarely been studied.

    Boosting the C–C Coupling Efficiency for Diluted CO2 Electroreduction to Dual Carbon Products · 2025 · DOI

  • High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide In industrial implementations, CO 2 electrolyzers will likely operate at high temperatures due to heat transfer limitations, but the effects of temperature on surface reactions involved in CO 2 electroreduction remain elusive and heavily based on inference from product analysis.

    Temperature Effects on the Surface CO Population during CO2 Electroreduction over Copper · 2025 · DOI

  • 5–2 nm) are a forbidden or promising zone for C 2+ products through CO 2 ER remains controversial.

    Revisits the Selectivity toward C2+ Products for CO2 Electroreduction over Subnano-Copper Clusters Based on Structural Descriptors · 2025 · DOI

  • However, the precise regulation of the Cu localized structure is still challenging and poorly understood, thus hindering the selective n -propanol electrosynthesis.

    Steering the Reconstruction of Oxide-Derived Cu by Secondary Metal for Electrosynthesis of n -Propanol from CO · 2024 · DOI

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102 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 648 CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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