Metal-support interactions in designing noble metal-based catalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction: Recent advances and future perspectives

Electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) offers a practical solution to current global greenhouse effect by converting excessive CO2 into value-added chemicals or fuels. Noble metal-based nanomaterials have been considered as efficient catalysts for the CO2RR owing to their high catalytic activity, long-term stability and superior selectivity to targeted products. On the other hand, they are usually loaded on different support materials in order to minimize their usage and maximize the utilization because of high price and limited reserve. The strong metal-support interaction (MSI) between the metal and substrate plays an important role in affecting the CO2RR performance. In this review, we mainly focus on different types of support materials (e.g., oxides, carbons, ligands, alloys and metal carbides) interacting with noble metal as electrocatalysts for CO2RR. Moreover, the positive effects about MSI for boosting the CO2RR performance via regulating the adsorption strength, electronic structure, coordination environment and binding energy are presented. Lastly, emerging challenges and future opportunities on noble metal electrocatalysts with strong MSI are discussed.