Selective CO-to-acetate electroreduction via intermediate adsorption tuning on ordered Cu–Pd sites

Electrochemical reduction of carbon monoxide (CO) has recently emerged as a potential approach for obtaining high-value, multicarbon products such as acetate, while the activity and selectivity for prodution of acetate have remained low. Herein, we develop an atomically ordered copper–palladium intermetallic compound (CuPd) composed of a high density of Cu–Pd pairs that feature as catalytic sites to enrich surface *CO coverage, stabilize ethenone as a key acetate path intermediate and inhibit the hydrogen evolution reaction, thus substantially promoting acetate formation. The CuPd electrocatalyst enables a high Faradaic efficiency of 70 ± 5% for CO-to-acetate electroreduction and a high acetate partial current density of 425 mA cm −2 . Under membrane electrode assembly conditions, the CuPd electrocatalyst demonstrated a 500 h CO-to-acetate conversion at 500 mA cm −2 with a stable acetate Faradaic efficiency of ~50%.