Strong metal-support interaction promoted scalable production of thermally stable single-atom catalysts.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32152283.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-14984-9 and PMC identifier 7062790.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have demonstrated superior catalytic performance in numerous heterogeneous reactions. However, producing thermally stable SACs, especially in a simple and scalable way, remains a formidable challenge. Here, we report the synthesis of Ru SACs from commercial RuO<sub>2</sub> powders by physical mixing of sub-micron RuO<sub>2</sub> aggregates with a MgAl<sub>1.2</sub>Fe<sub>0.8</sub>O<sub>4</sub> spinel. Atomically dispersed Ru is confirmed by aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Detailed studies reveal that the dispersion process does not arise from a gas atom trapping mechanism, but rather from anti-Ostwald ripening promoted by a strong covalent metal-support interaction. This synthetic strategy is simple and amenable to the large-scale manufacture of thermally stable SACs for industrial applications.