The large?scale use of fossil fuels has led to excessive CO₂ emissions, resulting in a series of problems such as rising temperatures, melting glaciers, and the accumulation of diseases and pests. Using electrochemical reduction of CO₂ (CO₂RR) to convert CO₂ into valuable chemicals and fuels has become a way to realize the carbon cycle. Over the years, good progress has been made in using metals and their oxides, carbon based materials, monatomic catalysts and other electrocatalysts for CO₂RR, but rare earth metals as "industrial vitamins" have been rarely reported for CO₂RR. This paper summarizes the application of rare earth elements as carriers, main catalysts and cocatalysts in CO₂RR, and explores the catalytic performance of rare earth materials in CO₂RR, so as to promote practical research of industrial application.

CeO₂?modified three?dimensional nitrogen? and phosphorus?doped carbon?based catalysts (CeO₂?NPC) were prepared with cerium chloride hexahydrate as the precursor,sodium chloride as the template,and milk as the carbon source.The results of rotating disc electrode (RDE) and rotating ring?disc electrode (RRDE) tests were used to analyze the influence of catalyst preparation conditions on the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) process.The influence of the synthesis process on the structure was investigated by X?ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy.Heteroelements such as N and P spilled out with small molecules during calcination temperature increase.In this process,the degree of defects on the carbon carriers was increasing and the content of CeO₂ was invariably in an increasing trend.