A facile strategy for the preparation of monatomic silver

Abstract

The surface free energy of metal increases with the decrease of the metal particle sizes, which contributes to the aggregation of isolated single atoms into nanoparticles during synthesis and reaction processes. The common disadvantages of traditional methods for preparing monatomic catalysts are low loading capacity, easy aggregation of atoms and complex preparation methods. These disadvantages limit the application of monatomic catalysts. In this paper, a simple, stable and repeatable method for preparing monatomic silver catalyst without high temperature is explored. Preyssler-type polyoxometalate is a metal oxide with a cavity disk structure, and Na+ in the cavity structure can be replaced by Ag+ by hydrothermal method. Under the action of reducing agent, Ag+-containing polyoxometalate can be converted into monatomic silver, and under the protection of surfactant, monatomic silver can be stably maintained for one month.