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Ensemble effect for single-atom, small cluster and nanoparticle catalysts

Nature Catalysis volume 5, pages 766–776 (2022)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 14 October 2022

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Abstract

A large family of heterogeneous catalytic reactions require active sites with more than one metal atom, that is, an ensemble of metal atoms. The ensemble requirement, which refers to the minimum number of metal atoms that are needed to catalyse a reaction with optimal efficiency, is a useful metric to evaluate the effectiveness of catalysts for reactions with different site requirements. In this Review, we revisit the traditional ensemble effect and lay out the principles for its incorporation within efficient metal catalysts. Single-atom catalysts can also be described through the ensemble effect theory, as the coordination groups of single-atom catalysts constitute an ensemble that is vital for their reactivity. The understanding of the ensemble requirement for metal catalysts provides insights into catalyst design with both optimized activity and atomic efficiency, and contributes to the development of sustainable heterogeneous catalytic transformations.

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Fig. 1: Reactions favoured by catalysts with PMEs and single metal atoms.
Fig. 2: Catalyst design based on the PME effect in ammonia synthesis with Ru catalysts as an example.
Fig. 3: Composition and classification of the HAEs.
Fig. 4: Catalyst design based on the HAE effect for complex reactions.

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Acknowledgements

This work received financial support from the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFA1501100), the Natural Science Foundation of China (21725301, 21932002, 22005007 and 21821004), and the China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) (project no. 122085). D.M. acknowledges support from the Tencent Foundation through the XPLORER PRIZE. Y.G. acknowledges support from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (no. 2020M680195) and Beijing Molecular Sciences Junior Fellow Program.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Yu Guo, Maolin Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, and BIC-ESAT, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Yu Guo, Maolin Wang & Ding Ma

  2. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Zeuthen, Germany

    Qingjun Zhu

  3. Center for Integrative Materials Discovery, Department of Chemistry and Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of New Haven, West Haven, CT, USA

    Dequan Xiao

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Y.G., M.W. and D.M. wrote the first draft of the paper, and Q.Z. and D.X. revised the manuscript. Specifically, D.M. and Q.Z. drew the outline of the manuscript, M.W. and Y.G. wrote the PME effect part and Y.G. wrote the HAE effect part. The rest of the article was written by all the authors.

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Correspondence to Ding Ma.

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Guo, Y., Wang, M., Zhu, Q. et al. Ensemble effect for single-atom, small cluster and nanoparticle catalysts. Nat Catal 5, 766–776 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-022-00839-7

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