Beyond catalysts: enhancing electrocatalytic CO2 reduction through diverse strategies

Electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction carries extraordinary significance for curbing CO₂ emissions while generating value-added chemicals with economic and environmental benefits. Despite significant progress in catalyst design and the regulation of intrinsic activity, there still exist huge challenges in the industrial application of CO₂ reduction. In addition to catalysts, the regulation and optimization of electrodes, electrolytes, reactors, and external fields for CO₂ reduction can also enhance performance, providing a feasible strategy for the industrial application of CO₂ reduction. With this background, we present the recent progress on improving the performance of electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction beyond catalysts, providing useful guidance and discussion on the intrinsic structure–activity relationships and reaction mechanisms, and existing challenges and prospects for electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction in both fundamental research and application fields. We hope that this review can stimulate more insights and inspiration toward the development of CO₂ reduction technology.