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  • Review Article
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Bridging homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis by heterogeneous single-metal-site catalysts

Nature Catalysis volume 1, pages 385–397 (2018)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 11 February 2019

This article has been updated

Abstract

In heterogeneous single-metal-site catalysts (HSMSCs) the active metal centres are located individually on a support and are stabilized by neighbouring surface atoms such as nitrogen, oxygen or sulfur. Modern characterization techniques allow the identification of these individual metal atoms on a given support, and the resulting materials are often referred as single-atom catalysts. Their electronic properties and catalytic activity are tuned by the interaction between the central metal and the neighbouring surface atoms, and their atomically dispersed nature allows for metal utilization of up to 100%. In this way, HSMSCs provide new opportunities for catalysis, and with respect to structure build a bridge between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. Herein, selected publications from 2010 in this area are reviewed and their perspectives for the near future are highlighted. Where appropriate, comparisons between HSMSCs and homogeneous/heterogeneous counterparts are presented.

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Fig. 1: Building a bridge between heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis.
Fig. 2: Plot of particle size versus percentage of atoms located on the surface of the particle.
Fig. 3: Schematic illustration of methods to modify the interaction of metal–support to prepare HSMSCs.
Fig. 4: Characterization of single platinum site catalysts supported on Al2O3-nanorods.
Fig. 5: Comparison of heterogeneous catalysis.

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Change history

  • 11 February 2019

    In the version of this Review originally published, the titles of Table 1 and Table 3 were mistakenly swapped. The title for Table 1 should be “Single Pt site catalysed selective hydrosilylation of various olefins”, and the title for Table 3 should be “Synthesis and applications of single-metal-site catalysts”. These errors have now been amended.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge support by the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the BMBF.

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  1. Leibniz-Institute for Catalysis at the University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

    Xinjiang Cui, Wu Li, Pavel Ryabchuk, Kathrin Junge & Matthias Beller

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  1. Xinjiang Cui
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Cui, X., Li, W., Ryabchuk, P. et al. Bridging homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis by heterogeneous single-metal-site catalysts. Nat Catal 1, 385–397 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-018-0090-9

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