Applications of single-atom catalysts

Owning to unsaturated coordination environment, quantum size effect and metal-support interaction, single- or dual-atom metal sites, such as Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Sn, Ir, Pt, Au, Bi, and Er coordinated with nonmetallic elements such as O, N, P, and S, exhibit different electronic configurations, which endow them with high catalytic performances in multiple redox reactions and versatile applications in organic synthesis, environmental remediation, energy conversion, and biomedicine. Despite intense research, the relation of structure-activity for single-atom catalysts (SACs) still bedazzles researchers, since diversified configurations of active sites would bring about difficulty in structural identification and theoretical simulations. Here, recent results on the applications of SACs are reviewed with an emphasis on identifying the active sites and discussing the relation between structure and property.