Electrocatalytic C─C Bond Formation Via Cyanide Interception of CO₂ Reduction Intermediates.

Authors

Gongbo Liu, Liuru Fang, Dayu Zhu, Aimin Li, Haoming Yu, Chunlu Ding, Yuen-Leong Chow, Mengjie Liu, Jianqi Geng, San H Thang, Jie Zhang

Published in

Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany). Pages e77346. Aug 21, 2026. Epub Aug 21, 2026.

Abstract

Electrochemical CO₂ reduction offers a sustainable route to convert greenhouse gas into high-value-added chemicals, yet product distributions remain largely limited to simple C₁-C₃ molecules. Here, we report a new reaction in which CO₂ reduction intermediates undergo direct C-C coupling with an external carbon nucleophile under electrochemical conditions. Using cobalt phthalocyanine supported on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CoPc/MWCNT) as a catalyst, cyanide ions intercept deeply reduced C₁ intermediates to produce glycolonitrile at 4°C with a faradaic efficiency (FE) of up to 6.6%. Combined electrochemical analysis, control experiments, and density functional theory calculations identify *CH₂O as the key coupling intermediate, revealing a C-C coupling mechanism fundamentally different from conventional coupling pathways in CO₂ electroreduction to synthesize C₂₊ compounds. Extending this concept to a three-component reaction involving hydroxylamine (NH₂OH) enables electrocatalytic synthesis of glycine under ambient pressure with a FE of 2.8%. This work establishes a new strategy for constructing complex carbon skeletons directly from CO₂ and external nucleophiles, expanding the synthetic scope of electrochemical carbon conversion.

PMID:
42627688
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 22 Aug 2026.

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