Cation vacancy stabilization of single-atomic-site Pt<sub>1</sub>/Ni(OH)<sub>x</sub> catalyst for diboration of alkynes and alkenes.

Zhang, Jian; Wu, Xi; Cheong, Weng-Chon; Chen, Wenxing; Lin, Rui; Li, Jia; Zheng, Lirong; Yan, Wensheng et al. · Nat Commun · 2018

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Development of single-atomic-site catalysts with high metal loading is highly desirable but proved to be very challenging. Although utilizing defects on supports to stabilize independent metal atoms has become a powerful method to fabricate single-atomic-site catalysts, little attention has been devoted to cation vacancy defects. Here we report a nickel hydroxide nanoboard with abundant Ni<sup>2+</sup> vacancy defects serving as the practical support to achieve a single-atomic-site Pt catalyst (Pt<sub>1</sub>/Ni(OH)<sub>x</sub>) containing Pt up to 2.3 wt% just by a simple wet impregnation method. The Ni<sup>2+</sup> vacancies are found to have strong stabilizing effect of single-atomic Pt species, which is determined by X-ray absorption spectrometry analyses and density functional theory calculations. This Pt<sub>1</sub>/Ni(OH)<sub>x</sub> catalyst shows a high catalytic efficiency in diboration of a variety of alkynes and alkenes, yielding an overall turnover frequency value upon reaction completion for phenylacetylene of ~3000 h<sup>-1</sup>, which is much higher than other reported heterogeneous catalysts.