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Rossi K, Ruiz-Ferrando A, Akl DF, Abalos VG, Heras-Domingo J, Graux R, Hai X, Lu J, Garcia-Gasulla D, López N, Pérez-Ramírez J, Mitchell S. Quantitative Description of Metal Center Organization and Interactions in Single-Atom Catalysts. Adv Mater 2024; 36:e2307991. [PMID: 37757786 DOI: 10.1002/adma.202307991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2023] [Revised: 09/22/2023] [Indexed: 09/29/2023]
Abstract
Ultra-high-density single-atom catalysts (UHD-SACs) present unique opportunities for harnessing cooperative effects between neighboring metal centers. However, the lack of tools to establish correlations between the density, types, and arrangements of isolated metal atoms and the support surface properties hinders efforts to engineer advanced material architectures. Here, this work precisely describes the metal center organization in various mono- and multimetallic UHD-SACs based on nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) supports by coupling transmission electron microscopy with tailored machine-learning methods (released as a user-friendly web app) and density functional theory simulations. This approach quantifies the non-negligible presence of multimers with increasing atom density, characterizes the size and shape of these low-nuclearity clusters, and identifies surface atom density criteria to ensure isolation. Further, it provides previously inaccessible experimental insights into coordination site arrangements in the NC host, uncovering a repulsive interaction that influences the disordered distribution of metal centers in UHD-SACs. This observation holds in multimetallic systems, where chemically-specific analysis quantifies the degree of intermixing. These fundamental insights into the materials chemistry of single-atom catalysts are crucial for designing catalytic systems with superior reactivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin Rossi
- Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland
| | - Andrea Ruiz-Ferrando
- Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, Avenida Països Catalans 16, Tarragona, 43007, Spain
- Departament de Química Física i Inorgànica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Carrer de Marcellí Domingo 1, Tarragona, 43007, Spain
| | - Dario Faust Akl
- Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland
| | | | - Javier Heras-Domingo
- Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, Avenida Països Catalans 16, Tarragona, 43007, Spain
| | - Romain Graux
- Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Route Cantonale, Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland
| | - Xiao Hai
- Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Science Drive 3, Singapore, 117543, Singapore
| | - Jiong Lu
- Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Science Drive 3, Singapore, 117543, Singapore
- Centre for Advanced 2D Materials and Graphene Research Centre, National University of Singapore, Science Drive 2, Singapore, 117546, Singapore
- Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials, National University of Singapore, Science Drive 2, Singapore, 117544, Singapore
| | - Dario Garcia-Gasulla
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Plaça d'Eusebi Güell 1-3, Barcelona, 08034, Spain
| | - Nuria López
- Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, Avenida Països Catalans 16, Tarragona, 43007, Spain
| | - Javier Pérez-Ramírez
- Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland
| | - Sharon Mitchell
- Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland
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