Electronic structure modulation of lanthanum-doped Cu₂O supported by GO to accelerate C–C coupling for electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction towards multicarbon products

Electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction to value-added fuels and feedstocks, especially multicarbon (C₂₊) products, provides a sustainable pathway to address the negative environmental impacts of excessive CO₂ emissions. However, the selective conversion from CO₂ to C₂₊ remains challenging due to the lack of efficient electrocatalysts. In this work, La-incorporated Cu₂O catalysts loaded on graphene oxide (La-Cu₂O/GO) were successfully prepared via a typical liquid-phase reduction method. Notably, in situ ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and theoretical calculations revealed that the incorporation of La can effectively modify the electronic structure of Cu₂O, thus accelerating the adsorption of C–C coupling intermediates, ultimately improving the selectivity of C₂₊ products. Through the electrocatalytic measurement under a constant current density of −100 mA cm⁻², La-Cu₂O/GO displays remarkable performance for CO₂ conversion to C₂₊ products with a Faraday efficiency (FE) of 43.9 %, up to 3.51 times higher than that of pristine Cu₂O/GO.