ABSTRACT Electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction (CO 2 RR) is spurring intensive research interest, where many attentions have been paid to catalyst design and mechanism study. Electrode near‐surface microenvironment matters fundamentally for reactant mass transfer, water molecule interference, catalyst exposure, and others, yet it has been rarely investigated. In the latest issue of Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. , Han, Kang and coauthors reported a method to regulate the microenvironment on the catalyst surface by adding polyethylene glycol, which remarkably improves the yield of multicarbon products. This strategy of controlling multiple proton–electron coupling processes through molecular chemistry‐driven microenvironmental regulation is thought to inspire new idea for addressing the low efficiency challenge of CO 2 RR.
Bei et al. (Thu,) studied this question.