Molecularly Distorted Local Structure in Bi₂ CuO₄ Oxide to Stabilize Lattice Oxygen for Efficient Formate Electrosynthesis

The electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂ RR) provides an economically feasible way for converting green energy into valuable chemical feedstocks and fuels. Great progress has been achieved in the understanding and synthesis of oxidized-based precatalysts; however, their dynamical changes of local structure under operando conditions still hinder their further applications. Here a molecularly distorted Bi₂ CuO₄ precatalyst for efficient CO₂ -to-formate conversion is reported. X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) results and theoretical calculations suggest that the distorted structure with molecularly like [CuO₄ ]^6- unit rotation is more conducive to the structural stability of the sample. Operando XAFS and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) results prove that quite a bit of lattice oxygen can remain in the distorted sample after CO₂ RR. Electrochemical measurements of the distorted sample show an excellent activity and selectivity with a high formate partial current density of 194.6 mA cm^-2 at an extremely low overpotential of -400 mV. Further in situ surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRAS) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations illustrate that the retained oxygen can optimize the adsorption of *OCHO intermediate for the enhanced CO₂ RR performance.