(703c) Stories about Single Atom Catalysis

Increasing demand for sustainable energy has accelerated research on various renewable technologies. Developing catalytic energy conversion technologies for replacing the traditional energy source is highly expected to resolve the fossil fuel exhaustion and related environmental problems. Exploring stable and high‐efficiency catalysts is of vital importance for the promotion of these technologies. Single-atom catalysts (SACs), containing single metal atoms anchored on supports, represent the utmost utilization of metallic catalysts and thus maximize the usage efficiency of metal atom.¹ However, with the decreasing of particle size, the surface free energy increases obviously, and tends to aggregate into clusters or particles. Selection of an appropriate support is necessary to interact with isolated atoms strongly, and thus prevents the movement and aggregation of isolated atoms, creating stable, finely dispersed active sites. Furthermore, with uniform single-atom dispersion and well-defined configuration, SACs afford great space for optimizing high selectivity and activity.

Our research interest focuses on the development of single-atom catalysts with the particular configuration for sustainable energy conversion, including photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and thermal catalysis.² His research also extends to the operando investigation for monitoring the structural evolution of the reactive centers, as well as the mutual interaction between the reactive center and reactant in the catalytic process. The widespread adoption of SACs in diverse catalytic reactions will be comprehensively introduced.^{3, 4} By presenting these advances and addressing some future challenges with potential solutions related to the integral development of catalysis over SACs, we expect to shed some light on the forthcoming research of SACs for catalytic energy conversion.

Reference：

1. Zhang H, Liu G, Shi L, Ye J. Single‐atom catalysts: emerging multifunctional materials in heterogeneous catalysis. Adv. Energy Mater. 2018, 8, 1701343.
2. Feng C, Wu ZP, Huang KW, Ye J, Zhang H. Surface Modification of 2D Photocatalysts for Solar Energy Conversion. Adv. Mater.,2022, 34, 2200180.
3. Xue Z-H, Luan D, Zhang H, Lou XWD. Single-atom catalysts for photocatalytic energy conversion. Joule, 2022, 6, 92-133
4. Duan L, et al. A molecular ruthenium catalyst with water-oxidation activity comparable to that of photosystem II. Nat. Chem. 2012, 4, 418-423.