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.