Research Projects

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) bearing isolated metal atoms as active sites have been found applicable for a variety of catalytic processes. However, due to high surface energy, small metal species tend to aggregate, resulting in extremely low metal amounts in the majority of the SACs. In this research, I want to propose a novel and versatile protocol, in which metal-complexes will be isolated by confining in a viscous polymer network or diluting with small organic molecules as building blocks followed by pyrolysis to construct SACs at elevated metal loadings. The method will be applied to synthesize atomically dispersed Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Pd catalysts for applications of sensors for detecting organic/inorganic pollutants in water and electrocatalysts. In-situ IR spectroscopy of probe molecule adsorption in combination with XPS, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and quantum chemical calculations will be applied to characterize SACs. Finally, the synthesis of homo- and heterobimetallic SACs will be realized to exploit the cooperation of proximate metal centers in catalysis.