Xia, Jiayu; Li, Shoujie; Liu, Xiaohu; Dong, Xiao; Mao, Jianing; Chen, Aohui; Zhu, Huanyi; Wang, Xiaotong; Xu, Ziran; Wei, Yiheng; Li, Guihua; Song, Yanfang; Wei, Wei; Chen, Wei

APPLIED CATALYSIS B-ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

2025, ,

Xia, Jiayu; Li, Shoujie; Liu, Xiaohu; Dong, Xiao; Mao, Jianing; Chen, Aohui; Zhu, Huanyi; Wang, Xiaotong; Xu, Ziran; Wei, Yiheng; Li, Guihua; Song, Yanfang; Wei, Wei; Chen, Wei

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 offers a sustainable pathway for the production of valuable multi-carbon products, particularly ethanol, which is in high demand due to its high energy density and diverse applications. In CO2 electroreduction, CO2 and H2O need to be synergistically activated to promote intermediate formation, but the role of active *H provided by H2O dissociation is often overlooked. In this study, we develop a lanthanum hydroxide modified copper hollow-fiber penetration electrode (La(OH)3@Cu HPE) to enhance ethanol selectivity and production efficiency via promoting activation coordination between CO2 and H2O. La(OH)3@Cu HPE exhibits remarkable catalytic performances, achieving a faradaic efficiency of 52.6 % for ethanol and over 80 % for C2+ products at the ampere-level current density of 2.5 A center dot cm- 2. In-situ spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations reveal that the introduction of La(OH)3 not only modulates the surface electronic structure of La(OH)3@Cu HPE, but also promoting the formation of critical intermediates such as *CO and *CHO, but also facilitates water dissociation to produce *H, which further enhances the hydrogenation of *CH2CHO into ethanol. This work offers a promising strategy of electrode design for efficient CO2-to-ethanol conversion.