Liu Jieyuan, Kong Xue, Zheng Lirong, Guo Xu, Liu Xiaofang, Shui Jianglan
School of Materials Science and Engineering , Beihang University , No. 37 Xueyuan Road , Beijing 100191 , People's Republic of China.
Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility , Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , No. 19 Yuquan Road , Beijing 100049 , People's Republic of China.
ACS Nano. 2020 Jan 28;14(1):1093-1101. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.9b08835. Epub 2020 Jan 16.
Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have attracted much attention owning to their high catalytic properties. Herein, yttrium and scandium rare earth SACs are successfully synthesized on a carbon support (Y/NC and Sc/NC). Different from the well-known M-N structure of M-N-C (M = Fe, Co) catalysts, Sc and Y atoms with a large atomic radius tend to be anchored to the large-sized carbon defects through six coordination bonds of nitrogen and carbon. Although Y- and Sc-based nanomaterials are generally inactive to room-temperature electrochemical reactions, Y/NC and Sc/NC SACs exhibit catalytic activities to nitrogen reduction reaction and carbon dioxide reduction reaction due to the modulation of the local electronic structure of Y/Sc single atoms by N and C coordination. The catalytic functions of rare earth single atoms not only demonstrate the magical effect of SACs but also promote the application of rare earth catalysts in room-temperature electrochemical reactions.
单原子催化剂（SACs）因其高催化性能而备受关注。在此，钇和钪稀土单原子催化剂成功地在碳载体上合成（Y/NC和Sc/NC）。与众所周知的M-N-C（M = Fe，Co）催化剂的M-N结构不同，具有大原子半径的Sc和Y原子倾向于通过氮和碳的六个配位键锚定在大尺寸的碳缺陷上。尽管基于Y和Sc的纳米材料通常对室温电化学反应无活性，但由于N和C配位对Y/Sc单原子局部电子结构的调制，Y/NC和Sc/NC单原子催化剂对氮还原反应和二氧化碳还原反应表现出催化活性。稀土单原子的催化功能不仅展示了单原子催化剂的神奇效果，还促进了稀土催化剂在室温电化学反应中的应用。
