Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2017, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (9): 1498-1507.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(17)62872-9

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Highlights of the major progress in single-atom catalysis in 2015 and 2016

Bing Hana,b, Rui Langa, Botao Qiaoa, Aiqin Wanga, Tao Zhanga   

  1. a State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, Liaoning, China;
    b University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2017-04-24 Revised:2017-06-07 Online:2017-09-18 Published:2017-09-06
  • Contact: 10.1016/S1872-2067(17)62872-9
  • Supported by:

    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21606222, 21303184, 21573232), China Postdoctoral Science Foun-dation (2016M601350), Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB17020100), National Key Projects for Funda-mental Research and Development of China (2016YFA0202801), and Department of Science and Technology of Liaoning Province (2015020086-101).

Abstract:

The idea that single metal atoms dispersed on a solid support can act as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst was raised in 2011 when single Pt atoms on an FeOx surface were reported to be active for CO oxidation and preferential oxidation of CO in H2. The last six years have witnessed tremendous progress in the field of single-atom catalysis. Here we introduce the major achievements on this topic in 2015 and 2016. Some particular aspects of single-atom catalysis are discussed in depth, including new approaches in single-atom catalyst (SAC) synthesis, stable gold SACs for various reac-tions, the high selectivity of Pt and Pd SACs in hydrogenation, and the superior performance of non-noble metal SACs in electrochemistry. These accomplishments will encourage more efforts by researchers to achieve the controllable fabrication of SACs and explore their potential applications.

Key words: Single-atom catalysis, Catalyst synthesis, CO oxidation, Hydrogenation, Electrocatalysis