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Precisely regulating the electronic structures of metal active species is highly desirable for electrocatalysis. However, carbon with inert surface provide weak metal-support interaction, which is insufficient to modulate the electronic structures of metal nanoparticles. Herein, we propose a new method to control the electrocatalytic behavior of supported metal nanoparticles by dispersing single metal atoms on an O-doped graphene. Ideal atomic metal species are firstly computationally screened. We then verify this concept by deposition of Ru nanoparticles onto an O-doped graphene decorated with single metal atoms (e.g., Fe, Co, and Ni) for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Consistent with theoretical predictions, such hybrid catalysts show outstanding HER performance, much superior to other reported electrocatalysts such as the state-of-the-art Pt/C. This work offers a new strategy for modulating the activity and stability of metal nanoparticles for electrocatalysis processes.

Supported metal nanoclusters consisting of several dozen atoms are highly attractive for heterogeneous catalysis with unique catalytic properties. However, the metal nanocluster catalysts face the challenges of thermal sintering and consequent deactivation owing to the loss of metal surface areas particularly in the applications of high-temperature reactions. Here, we report that sulfur—a documented poison reagent for metal catalysts—when doped in a carbon matrix can stabilize ~1 nanometer metal nanoclusters (Pt, Ru, Rh, Os, and Ir) at high temperatures up to 700 °C. We find that the enhanced adhesion strength between metal nanoclusters and the sulfur-doped carbon support, which arises from the interfacial metal-sulfur bonding, greatly retards both metal atom diffusion and nanocluster migration. In catalyzing propane dehydrogenation at 550 °C, the sulfur-doped carbon supported Pt nanocluster catalyst with interfacial electronic effects exhibits higher selectivity to propene as well as more stable durability than sulfur-free carbon supported catalysts., The sulfur is a documented poison reagent for metal catalysts. Here the authors show when doped in a carbon matrix, sulfur can enhance the adhesion strength and eventually suppress the metal sintering, which improve the performance of propane dehydrogenation by strong chemical/electronic interactions.

Atomically dispersed metal atoms on supports, so-called single-atom catalysts (SACs), have recently attracted extensive attention in the catalysis field. It has been found that besides the primary metal atom, the proximial atoms also contribute to the catalytic activity significantly. Here, we show that tailoring of the local coordination environment of Pt1 single atoms on CeO2 using phosphorus gives rise to an activity enhancement up to a 10 times higher than Pt1/CeO2 SAC in hydrogenation of styrene, cyclohexene, phenylacetylene, and nitrobenzene. X-ray absorption, photoelectron, and infrared spectroscopies showed that the Pt1 single atoms modulated by phosphorus have a higher valence state. Infrared spectroscopy and temperature-programmed reduction further unveiled that significantly stronger adsorption of reactant and facilitated hydrogen spillover on phosphorus-doped CeO2 both play important roles for the dramatic activity enhancement. These findings point out an avenue to design an advanced SACs with...

In this study, rare earth (RE) metal doped ZrO2 was prepared by a surfactant-assisted coprecipitation/hydrothermal crystallization method and used to load Co as catalyst for the hydrogenation of aromatic carbonyl compounds in water. Furfural was hydrogenated to furfural alcohol in water with up to 95 mol % yield over Co/ZrLa0.2Ox at 40 °C, 2 MPa H2 in 10 h. The doping of rare earth metal oxide has three advantages: (I) it promotes the ZrO2 to reach a small-sized, stable, and high-activity tetragonal phase zirconia and thus lead to a high specific surface area for metal loading; (II) it interacts with Co to reach an ultrasmall average particle size of 1.1 nm; and (III) it modifies the ZrO2 surface to increase the amount of acidic sites for the adsorption of carbonyl feedstock. The adsorption experiment indicated a tight interaction between not only the carrier and C═O bond but also the Co clusters and C═O bond, which were of benefit for the hydrogenation of carbonyl groups. The surfactant addition during t...

Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is an effective route to produce olefins, gasoline, diesel, and oxygenates from syngas (CO + H2 ). However, it still remains a challenge for regulating the product distribution of FTS. Here, a series of Co/C sub-microreactors with precise designed nanoarchitectures are synthesized for selective syngas conversion. Through a combination of surface protection-assisted etching and following carbonization process, Co/C sub-microreactors with solid cube, double-shelled hollow box, and hollow box architectures, namely, Co/C-Cube, Co/C-DBox, Co/C-Box can be obtained. In FTS, comparing with solid Co/C-Cube, double-shelled hollow structured Co/C-DBox is inclined to grow long-chain hydrocarbon products, whereas hollow structured Co/C-Box avails the formation of short-chain hydrocarbon chemicals. Therefore, shape selective catalysis and controlled product distribution of FTS are realized by tuning the architectures of Co/C sub-microreactors. It is expected to fundamentally unravel the heterogeneous catalytic process via upfront designing and precisely regulating the architectures of micro/nanoreactors.

The hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of lignin-derived phenols is important to produce the renewable biofuels. Herein, we reported a simple method to prepare magnetic nitrogen-doped carbon supported cobalt nitride catalysts (CoNx@NC) by copyrolysis of cellulose and cobalt nitrate under ammonia atmosphere. The catalysts were prepared at different temperatures and characterized by elemental analysis, atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). The CoNx@NC-650 (pyrolyzed at 650 °C) exhibited the best HDO activity for eugenol conversion among a series of Co-based catalysts. The yield of propylcyclohexanol from eugenol was >99.9% under 2 MPa H2 at 200 °C for 2 h. Moreover, a high yield of propylcyclohexane (99.1%) could be achieved when the solid acid HZSM-5 was added to the reaction system. Other lignin-derived phenolic compo...