A team of Brown University researchers has fine-tuned a copper catalyst to produce complex hydrocarbons—C 2+ products—from CO 2 with high efficiency. An open-access paper on the work is published in Nature Communications . The electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR), driven by renewable energy, is a promising strategy to reduce CO 2 accumulation. By converting CO 2 into products of higher value, a closed-loop carbon economy begins to emerge. To make CO 2 RR economically viable, efficient electrocatalysts with high selectivity for targeted products at scale are needed. Among the metals studied, copper is the only metal known for its intrinsic ability to convert CO 2 into hydrocarbons and alcohols via electrochemical CO 2 RR. … Advances made in the previous studies inspired us to study each parameter influencing catalyst performance separately (i.e., chemical species present and their reactivity/solubility, applied potential, pH, and roughness) in order […]