Abstract

Single-atom metal catalysts have sparked tremendous attention, but direct transformation of cheap and easily obtainable bulk metal oxide into single atoms is still a great challenge. Here we report a facile and versatile gas-transport strategy to synthesize isolated single-atom copper sites (Cu ISAS/NC) catalyst at gram levels. Commercial copper (I) oxide powder is sublimated as mobile vapor at nearly melting temperature (1500 K) and subsequently can be trapped and reduced by the defect-rich nitrogen-doped carbon (NC), forming the isolated copper sites catalyst. Strikingly, this thermally stable Cu ISAS/NC, which is obtained above 1270 K, delivers excellent oxygen reduction performance possessing a recorded half-wave potential of 0.92 V vs RHE among other Cu-based electrocatalysts. By varying metal oxide precursors, we demonstrate the universal synthesis of different metal single atoms anchored on NC materials (M ISAS/NC, where M refers to Mo and Sn). This strategy is readily scalable and the as-prepared sintering-resistant M ISAS/NC catalysts hold great potential in high-temperature applications.

Details

Title
Directly transforming copper (I) oxide bulk into isolated single-atom copper sites catalyst through gas-transport approach
Author
Yang, Zhengkun 1 ; Chen, Bingxu 2 ; Chen, Wenxing 3 ; Qu, Yunteng 1 ; Zhou, Fangyao 1 ; Zhao, Changming 1 ; Xu, Qian 4 ; Zhang, Qinghua 5 ; Duan, Xuezhi 2 ; Wu, Yuen 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

1  School of Chemistry and Materials Science, iChEM, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China 
2  State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China 
3  Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, PR China 
4  National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (NSRL), Hefei, China 
5  China Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 
6  School of Chemistry and Materials Science, iChEM, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China; Fujian Institute of Innovation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 
Pages
1-7
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Aug 2019
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11796-4
ProQuest document ID
2275917367
Copyright
© 2019. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.