In July 2024, The team of Professor Liu Xijun from SKL is entitled "EFeCu bimetallic clusters for efficient urea production via coupling reduction of carbon dioxide and nitrate" was published in the Journal of Colloid and Interface Science.

Urea electrosynthesis has appeared to meet the nitrogen cycle and carbon neutrality with energy-saving features. Copper can co-electrocatalyze among CO₂and nitrogen species to generate urea, however developing effective electrocatalysts is still an obstacle. Here, we developed a nitrogen-doped porous carbon loaded with FeCu clusters that convert CO₂and NO₃⁻into urea, with the highest Faradaic efficiency of 39.8 % and yield rate of 1024.6 μg h⁻¹mg_cat.⁻¹, under optimized ambient conditions, exceeding that at the Fe or Cu homogeneous sites. Furthermore, a favorable Csingle bondN coupling pathway originates from *NHCO and *NHCONO two intermediates with lower free energy barriers on FeCu dual active sites are verified through in-situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. This research might provide deep insights into coupling mechanisms and investigation of efficient catalysts for green urea production.