Mechanochemical Kilogram-Scale Synthesis of Noble Metal Single-Atom Catalysts

Abstract

Summary Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have attracted broad interest recently due to their superior catalytic properties. However, a facile fabrication method for the large-scale synthesis of SACs is still in demand. This study reports a mechanochemical approach for the mass production of noble metal SACs. The successful formation of atomically dispersed palladium species on zinc oxide (Pd1/ZnO) was verified by aberration-corrected high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Furthermore, our method exhibited little scaling-up effect on the mass production of Pd1/ZnO at ranges of 10–1,000 g, in which the catalyst structure and catalytic performance were retained. Meanwhile, the versatility of this approach was demonstrated by the large-scale fabrication of Rh and Ru SACs, and Pd1/Cu single-atom alloys. Thus, this promising strategy provides the potential for cost-effective mass production of SACs and subsequently may open a window for their industrial application.