Advanced Electrocatalysts with Single-Metal-Atom Active Sites

Yuxuan Wang; Hongyang Su; Yanghua He; Ligui Li; Shangqian Zhu; Hao Shen; Pengfei Xie; Xianbiao Fu; Guangye Zhou; Chen Feng; Dengke Zhao; Fei Xiao; Xiaojing Zhu; Yachao Zeng; Minhua Shao; Shaowei Chen; Gang Wu; Jie Zeng; Chao Wang

doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00594

Advanced Electrocatalysts with Single-Metal-Atom Active Sites

Chem Rev. 2020 Nov 11;120(21):12217-12314. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00594. Epub 2020 Nov 2.

Authors

Yuxuan Wang¹, Hongyang Su², Yanghua He³, Ligui Li⁴, Shangqian Zhu⁵, Hao Shen¹, Pengfei Xie¹, Xianbiao Fu¹, Guangye Zhou¹, Chen Feng², Dengke Zhao⁴, Fei Xiao⁵, Xiaojing Zhu⁴, Yachao Zeng³, Minhua Shao⁶, Shaowei Chen⁷, Gang Wu³, Jie Zeng², Chao Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, United States.
² Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Key Laboratory of Strongly-Coupled Quantum Matter Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Chemistry and Energy Catalysis of Anhui Higher Education Institutes, Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China.
³ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14260, United States.
⁴ New Energy Research Institute, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou 510007, China.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong P. R. China.
⁶ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Energy Institute, Hong Kong Branch of the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, and Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Control & Treatment of Heavy Metal Pollution, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong P. R. China.
⁷ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95064, United States.

PMID: 33136387
DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00594

Abstract

Electrocatalysts with single metal atoms as active sites have received increasing attention owing to their high atomic utilization efficiency and exotic catalytic activity and selectivity. This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary on the recent development of such single-atom electrocatalysts (SAECs) for various energy-conversion reactions. The discussion starts with an introduction of the different types of SAECs, followed by an overview of the synthetic methodologies to control the atomic dispersion of metal sites and atomically resolved characterization using state-of-the-art microscopic and spectroscopic techniques. In recognition of the extensive applications of SAECs, the electrocatalytic studies are dissected in terms of various important electrochemical reactions, including hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR), and nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). Examples of SAECs are deliberated in each case in terms of their catalytic performance, structure-property relationships, and catalytic enhancement mechanisms. A perspective is provided at the end of each section about remaining challenges and opportunities for the development of SAECs for the targeted reaction.