Spontaneous spatial-optimizing CO2 electroreduction to C2H4 over dynamically synergistic Cu-Bi pair

In CO 2 electroreduction, mutative intermediates and the challenging C C coupling necessitate the spatial interplay between active sites and through dynamically optimizing configurations. Herein, we anchor ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)-bonded Cu x+ /Bi 3+ pair within UiO-66 for a spontaneous spatial-optimizing CO 2 -to-C 2 H 4 electroreduction. Ab initio molecular dynamic (AIMD) simulation visualizes that such metal pair adaptively interacts with intermediates. Density functional theory (DFT) elicits the componential synergy, in which an upshift d-band of Cu activates CO 2 being protonated into *COOH while Bi site stabilizes oxygenated dimers for deep hydrogenation. The dynamic feature of such pair affords large freedom for sorption and migration of various intermediates, which consequently bestows UiO-66-EDTA/CuBi a maximal FE C 2 H 4 of 47 % and a total current density over 100 mA cm −2 in the flow cell.