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Overcoming copper stability challenges in CO2 electrolysis

Nature Reviews Materials volume 10, pages 550–563 (2025)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 27 June 2025

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Abstract

Copper and copper-based catalysts can electrochemically convert CO2 into ethylene and higher alcohols, among other products, at room temperature and pressure. This approach may be suitable for the production of high-value compounds. However, such a promising reaction is heavily burdened by the instability of copper during CO2 reduction. To date, non-copper catalysts have also failed to supplant the activity and selectivity of copper, leaving CO2-to-C2 electrolysis in the balance. In this Perspective, we discuss copper catalyst instability from both the atomistic and the microstructure viewpoint. We motivate that increased fundamental understanding, material design and operational approaches, along with increased reporting of failure mechanisms, will contribute to overcoming the barriers to multi-year operation. Our narrative focuses on the copper catalyst reconstruction occurring during CO2 reduction as one of the major causes inducing loss of C2 activity. We conclude with a rational path forward towards longer operations of CO2-to-C2 electrolysis.

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Fig. 1: Atomistic picture of the copper intrinsic instability from start-up to operating CO2RR applied potential and during CO2RR.
Fig. 2: Experimental evidence corroborating the atomistic picture of the intrinsic copper instability during CO2RR.
Fig. 3: Chemical and material approaches to increase copper intrinsic stability.
Fig. 4: Linking atomistic dissolution effects to long-term microscale copper restructuring.
Fig. 5: Elucidating the more stable production of C2+ products on copper catalysts in industrial system configurations.
Fig. 6: Testing catalyst stability in CO2 electrolysis.

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Acknowledgements

J.K. and T.B. acknowledge the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for providing the FlexEChem Grant (NWA.1237.18.002) via the NWA-themed call ‘Opslag en conversie’. P.P.A. acknowledges the NCCR Catalysis, a National Centre of Competence in Research programme funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number 180544). J.L. acknowledges the Swiss National Science Foundation for the financial support from grant number 200021_219715/1.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Jesse Kok, Petru P. Albertini.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage (MECS), Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands

    Jesse Kok & Thomas Burdyny

  2. Laboratory of Nanochemistry for Energy, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Sion, Switzerland

    Petru P. Albertini, Jari Leemans & Raffaella Buonsanti

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T.B. and R.B. conceptualized the article. J.K., P.P.A., J.L., R.B. and T.B. researched data for the article. All authors wrote the initial draft and contributed to the discussions of its content. The manuscript was revised in a collaborative manner.

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Kok, J., Albertini, P.P., Leemans, J. et al. Overcoming copper stability challenges in CO2 electrolysis. Nat Rev Mater 10, 550–563 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-025-00815-0

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