Heterogeneous Single Atom Environmental Catalysis: Fundamentals, Applications, and Opportunities

Abstract

The development of efficient catalysts is pivotal for pollution abatement to guarantee a sustainable and green industrial production. Supported single atom catalysts (SACs) with the advantages of maximum atom utilization, unique electronic structure, and distinguished metal support interaction have recently become a hotspot in the catalysis community, and bring new opportunities for environmental catalysis. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest progress on the environmental SACs from both the fundamental and practical points of view. It starts with highlighting the state‐of‐the‐art synthesis strategies of great values for the practical use to construct challenging SACs. The applications of SACs in the environmental remediation processes are critically summarized, including CO oxidation, NOx decomposition, volatile organic compounds incineration, CO2 conversion, and water purification. Meanwhile, the topic also sketches out the recent progress for the non‐mercury catalyzed acetylene hydrochlorination reaction to address the environmental‐benign synthesis. Emphasis is placed on the elucidation of the structure–activity relationships and the underlying catalytic mechanisms to shed light on the guidelines for catalyst optimization and upgradation. Finally, the remaining challenges and perspectives for this flourishing field are also discussed.

Advances in studies of the structural effects of supported Ni catalysts for CO2hydrogenation: from nanoparticle to single atom catalyst

“…Ni clusters are needed for the full hydrogenation of CO 2 with the 8e − redox cycle. 35 The unique characteristics of the SAC render Ni-SAC active for electro-chemical CO 2 reduction to CO. 154–157 Frei and his co-workers 35 confirmed that the MgO supported Ni-SAC is active for RWGS. MgO supported Ni NPs are normally highly active for CO 2 methanation.…”

Ultrafine Pd@PdPt nanowires with a single-atom alloy shell for efficient formate oxidation

“…Recent cutting-edge research suggests that atomically dispersing an active metal element in another metal material, namely single-atom alloys, will efficiently tune the adsorption and catalytic properties of the active metal element. [26][27][28][29][30][31][32] Due to the unique geometry of single-atom alloys, the locations of transition states and the binding sites of reaction intermediates are oen decoupled, resulting in deviations from the scaling relationship. [33][34][35] Accordingly, developing Pt-based single-atom alloys might be an effective strategy to break the scaling relationship towards FOR-related adsorbed species and address the sluggish kinetics of Pt-based FOR electrocatalysts.…”

Constructing N-Coordinated Co and Cu Single-Atomic-Pair Sites toward Boosted CO2 Photoreduction

“…18,19 Nevertheless, the structural uniformity of the active sites in SACs offers an atomic-scale perspective to reveal the relationship between the structure and catalytic activity. 20,21 Actually, quite a number of SACs including Ni-SA-x/ZrO 2 , 22 Er 1 /CN-NT, 23 W 18 O 49 @Co, 24 Cu SAs/UiO-66-NH 2 , 25 and Co-SA@SP-800 26 have been developed to catalyze the CO 2 photoreduction. In particular, catalysts with bimetallic active sites were revealed to be able to improve the catalytic performance of various reactions.…”

“…Owing to the virtues of ultimate atomic utilization, tunable coordination environment, and exceptional catalytic properties, single-atomic site catalysts (SACs) have been emerging as a rising star for highly efficiently photocatalyzing CO 2 RR. , Nevertheless, the structural uniformity of the active sites in SACs offers an atomic-scale perspective to reveal the relationship between the structure and catalytic activity. , Actually, quite a number of SACs including Ni-SA-x/ZrO 2 , Er 1 /CN-NT, W 18 O 49 @Co, Cu SAs/UiO-66-NH 2 , and Co-SA@SP-800 have been developed to catalyze the CO 2 photoreduction. In particular, catalysts with bimetallic active sites were revealed to be able to improve the catalytic performance of various reactions. − However, the application of atomic-pair catalysts (APCs) over CO 2 photoreduction appears to still remain unreported, to the best of our knowledge.…”