Single atom catalysts: stimulating electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction into industrial era

Carbon monoxide and formic acid play a significant role in industrial processes and are exceedingly economical C1 products in electrochemical CO2 reduction reactions (ECR). To improve the yield and catalytic activity in ECR processes, numerous researchers optimized catalysts and upgraded the electrolyzer. The increased electrocatalytic current density and production yield could significantly enable industrial electrochemical conversion from CO2 to CO/HCOOH. However, the most crucial factor restricting the industrialization of ECR is the high efficiency catalyst. The development of the efficient catalysts of ECR has lasted for decades. Traditional nanostructure catalysts suffer poor product selectivity, instability structure, and inhomogeneous catalytic active center, which seriously affect the industrial process. Single atom catalysts (SACs) processes uniform coordination environment of active center, maximum atom-utilization efficiency, and impressive stability, which is suitable for the catalyst for the industrial ECR. This perspective highlights and summarizes the coordination designed for SAC to obtain a high yield of CO/HCOOH. Moreover, we discuss the fabrication of the electrolyzer and the method of techno-economic assessment (TEA). At last, we summarize the opportunity and challenge for ECR in the industrial process.