Cascade Catalysis for CO ₂ Upgrading to Long-Chain Products

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Cascade catalytic conversion of CO 2 has recently emerged as a transformative strategy for multilevel CO 2 valorization. By integration of electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction with thermocatalytic and/or biocatalytic processes, this approach enables stepwise construction of complex products from simple carbon feedstocks. The electrocatalytic stage supplies key intermediates or upstream products such as CO, formate, formaldehyde, or ethanol, which can be further converted into value-added multicarbon products including sugars, polymers, and other fine chemicals through downstream coupling. Recent demonstrations, ranging from CO 2 -to-sugar and CO 2 -to-polyketone conversions to artificial CO 2 -to-polymer biocatalytic pathways, have demonstrated the great potential of cascade strategies in bridging electro-, thermo-, and biochemistry. This Outlook discusses recent progress in electrochemical cascade CO 2 conversion and outlines the key design goals for this field, including full-cascade performances, coupled catalyst-reaction optimizations, mechanistic understanding across complex interfaces, and integrated reactor architectures.