Cooperative promotion of electroreduction of CO to -propanol by *CO enrichment and proton regulation.

The CO/CO electroreduction reaction (CORR/CORR) to liquid products presents an enticing pathway to store intermittent renewable electricity. However, the selectivity for desirable high-value C products, such as -propanol, remains unsatisfactory in the CORR/CORR. Here, we report that *CO enrichment and proton regulation cooperatively enhance C-C coupling by increasing CO pressure and utilizing proton sponge modification, promoting the production of -propanol over a Cu/Cu nanosheet catalyst in the CORR. We obtain an impressive faradaic efficiency (FE) of 44.0% ± 2.3% for -propanol at a low potential of -0.44 V reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) under 3 bar CO. Experimental results demonstrated that *H intermediates could be regulated by proton sponge modification. characterization combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations validate that Cu species exist stably in proton sponge-modified Cu-based catalysts along with appropriate *CO coverage. This design facilitates the potential-determining C-C and C-C coupling steps and contributes to the -propanol production.