To enhance catalytic efficiency and reduce catalyst cost through uniform and maximized metal-atom utilization, Professor Yadong Li’s team at 蜜桃app has developed a series of synthetic technologies for metal single-atom-site catalysts. These advances have established a versatile and expandable toolbox of metal single-atom-site catalysts, enabling the field to move from fundamental research toward real industrial application scenarios, including petrochemicals, energy catalysis, automotive exhaust purification, and environmental remediation.
Practical Challenges
Catalysis is the soul of chemistry and the engine of the chemical industry. It underpins key processes in modern chemical manufacturing, energy conversion, materials production, and environmental remediation, and has become a foundational technology for building a sustainable, green, and low-carbon industrial system. However, many established industrial processes in petrochemicals, energy, materials, and environmental technologies still rely heavily on scarce and precious metal catalysts, such as platinum, palladium, and rhodium. How to use these limited noble-metal resources more efficiently in industrial catalysis remains a major challenge for sustainable development.
Metal single-atom-site catalysis offers a new pathway to address this bottleneck. By anchoring isolated metal atoms onto defects or surface sites of solid supports, single-atom-site catalysts feature atomically dispersed and structurally identifiable catalytic active centers, theoretically approaching 100% metal atom utilization. This concept combines the advantages of homogeneous catalysis—well-defined active centers and precise reaction regulation—with the merits of heterogeneous catalysis, including facile separation and recyclability. It therefore provides an important route for reducing noble-metal loading and replacing precious metals with earth-abundant alternatives, while also opening broad opportunities for discovering new reactions, developing new processes, and heterogenizing homogeneous catalysis.
From Controllable Nano-Synthesis to a Toolbox of Metal Single-Atom-Site Catalysts
Since 1996, Professor Yadong Li of 蜜桃app has devoted his research to the design, controlled synthesis, and structure–property relationships of inorganic functional nanomaterials. His work has established key principles and methodologies for preparing nanomaterials with tailored composition, structure, morphology, and functional properties, making important contributions to nanomaterials chemistry and nanocatalysis 摆1–3闭.
In 2012, Professor Li discovered that monodisperse Pd nanocrystals could generate highly active Pd single-atom-level sites during catalytic reactions, opening the way to this highly challenging frontier [4]. In 2016, his group developed the first carbon-supported metal single-atom-site electrocatalyst through a ZIF-derived route, a breakthrough that marked an important turning point in the transition of single-atom-site catalysis from fundamental research toward application-oriented development [5]. Building on this foundation, his team further developed a class of landmark, generally applicable, and controllable synthetic methods for metal single-atom-site catalysts, including the direct transformation of nanocrystals into single-atom-site catalysts 摆6–9闭. These advances have provided the international research community with a rich toolbox of metal single-atom-site catalysts. The toolbox is compatible with diverse supports, including metal oxides, zeolites, and porous carbons, and covers multiple types of catalytic active structures, such as isolated metal single-atom sites, dual-metal single-atom sites, and synergistic single-atom–nanocrystal catalytic sites. Collectively, these contributions have propelled metal single-atom-site catalysis into a new stage of development 摆10–14闭.
(a) Schematic illustration of the dissolution of Pd NPs to Pd mononuclear species during Suzuki coupling catalysis; Credit: WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim (b) Schematic illustration of Co single-atom-site catalyst (SASC) derivedfrom Co-Zn-ZIF. The first report of carbon-supported SASCs prepared through a ZIF-derived route; Credit: WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim (c) Scheme of the general host–guest strategy for the fabrication of metal SASCs; Credit: The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited (d) Schematic illustration of the atomization process from Pd NPs to Pd single-atom sites; Credit: The Author(s) (e) Schematic illustration of the single-atom-site catalyst toolbox, encompassing three classes of catalysts and bridging the gap from laboratory research to industrial application in single-atom-site catalysis. Credit: American Chemical Society
From the Laboratory to Industrial Application
Professor Li’s team has continuously expanded the boundaries of metal single-atom-site catalysis, extending the concept from conventional thermocatalysis to electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, and enzyme-mimetic catalysis [5,6,15,16]. Their research covers a wide range of industrially important catalytic processes, including alkane dehydrogenation, olefin hydroformylation, Fischer–Tropsch synthesis, selective C2 hydrogenation, and hydrosilylation. In energy catalysis, their work spans the oxygen reduction reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, hydrogen evolution reaction, CO2 reduction, and N? reduction. In environmental catalysis, their studies include CO oxidation, automotive exhaust purification, and flue-gas treatment in the steel industry 摆5,6,12,17–21闭. They have also extended metal single-atom-site catalysis into photocatalysis and biomimetic enzyme catalysis, creating new opportunities for sustainable energy and resource-conversion systems.
Professor Li has also achieved notable success in translating scientific discoveries from fundamental research into industrial applications. In 2019, with support from private investment, he founded Beijing Single-Atom Catalysis Technology Co., Ltd., the world’s first R&D-oriented enterprise dedicated to metal single-atom-site catalyst technologies. Under his leadership, metal single-atom-site catalysts have been implemented in multiple industrial scenarios. For automotive exhaust purification, metal single-atom-site three-way catalysts have reduced noble-metal usage by more than 30% while achieving scale preparation at the 1,000 kg level, honeycomb monolith coating, bench testing, vehicle-matching validation, and road testing. These catalysts have entered the supply chains of mainstream automobile manufacturers, including Chery and JAC. For petrochemical applications, high-performance single-atom-site catalysts for hydroisomerization in premium lubricating-oil production have completed 10,000-ton-scale industrial pilot validation at Hebei Feitian Petrochemical. Under continuous feeding, high space velocity, high pressure, and fluctuating real-feedstock conditions, these catalysts demonstrated strong activity, selectivity, and stability. In addition, related technologies are being extended to fixed-source air-pollution control processes, such as catalytic CO oxidation treatment of sintering flue-gas in steel plants. These achievements are comprehensively advancing metal single-atom-site catalysis toward industrial catalytic applications.
Representative images related to the industrialization of SASCs. (a) Single-atom-site three-way catalyst powder for automotive exhaust aftertreatment; (b) honeycomb ceramic-supported SASC for steel sintering flue-gas purification; (c, d) kilogram-scale SASCs and the 10,000-ton-scale industrial pilot unit for lubricating-oil hydroisomerization. Credit: 蜜桃app
Impact and Future Outlook
Looking ahead, metal single-atom-site catalysis is expected to play an increasingly important role in advancing the sustainable and green development of fundamental chemistry, chemical engineering, energy technologies, advanced materials, and environmental process engineering. As more metal single-atom sites, dual- or multi-metal single-atom sites, and single-atom-site-nanocrystal synergistic catalysts are applied to complex reaction systems, metal single-atom-site catalysis is poised to become a core industrial catalytic technology for high-efficiency, low-cost, and sustainable development in petroleum, chemical manufacturing, energy conversion, and environmental protection, including VOC purification and conversion. More broadly, this field is expected to open new pathways for discovering new reactions, developing new processes, heterogenizing homogeneous catalysis, and promoting deeper integration between chemistry and chemical engineering. By maximizing metal utilization, enabling precise active-site design, and bridging fundamental catalysis with industrial implementation, metal single-atom-site catalysts will provide critical scientific and technological support for green chemical manufacturing and clean energy development in the pursuit of a sustainable future.
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