Single-Atoms As the Active Site with High Selectivity for Electrochemical Application

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) are recently emerging as a new frontier in heterogenous catalysis for their effectiveness in promoting catalytic reactions. We report herein the study of carbon-supported SACs synthesized by a novel method that exhibit distinctive selectivity in electrochemical synthesis. The aberration-corrected HAADF-STEM images combined with X-ray absorption spectroscopy identified the presence of single atoms. Theoretical density functional theory simulations of the best performing catalytic activity and selectivity could be attributed to the existence of single atoms in the catalysts.