Thermally Stabilized Hydrogenation Dynamics in Single-Atom Alloys Enables Selective CO <sub>2</sub> Electroreduction
Zhaoyu Jin, Kui Liu, Zhicheng Pan, Xiangyi Shan, Furong Cai, Dongqi Yang, Panpan Li, Guihua Yu, Min Zhou
Abstract
Electrochemical CO 2 reduction to single-carbon products is central to sustainable fuels and chemicals, but under industrially relevant conditions elevated temperature fundamentally alters reaction behavior and the mechanistic basis for steering hydrogenation of carbon-based intermediates toward selective C 1 formation remains elusive. By integrating artificial intelligence-guided literature mining with theoretical modeling, single-atom alloy catalysts combining thermodynamic advantage with temperature-dependent dynamic surface stability were identified. We report that the coverage and lifetime of surface-active hydrogen (*H) serve as intrinsic, temperature-dependent descriptors for catalyst design, enabling tunable C 1 activity and selectivity under thermally enhanced electrocatalysis. Au 1 Cu single-atom alloys are shown to direct CO 2 to either CO or CH 4 via thermally stabilized hydrogenation dynamics; in situ surface-interrogation scanning electrochemical microscopy quantitatively resolves *H coverage and lifetime and links their balance to suppression of hydrogen evolution and promotion of deep hydrogenation to methane. Selectivity was modulated by Au content, delivering about 60% faradaic efficiency for CH 4 at 353 K, whereas higher loadings favored approximately 85–90% CO. Under device-relevant operation and high renewable electricity share, net carbon emissions were reduced relative to conventional electrocatalysis. These findings highlight a quantitative, temperature-explicit mechanistic framework based on *H coverage and lifetime, providing general principles for C 1 -selective CO 2 electroreduction and guiding catalyst design beyond room-temperature conditions.