Recent Progress on Non‐Carbon‐Supported Single‐Atom Catalysts for Electrochemical Conversion of Green Energy

Abstract

Single‐atom catalysts (SACs) are a popular area of research for clean energy conversion owing to their cost‐effectiveness and excellent performance. The support plays a vital role in uniformly stabilizing and dispersing the single atoms. Although easily accessible carbon (C) is commonly selected as a support for SACs, its electrochemical properties, particularly stability, usually limits its application. Recently, non‐C materials with flexible physicochemical properties and unique metal–support interactions have attracted increasing attention for loading isolated metal atoms, showing promise for promoting catalytic performance. Therefore, in this review, a comprehensive summary of current research developments in non‐C‐supported SACs for green energy conversion is provided. The review begins with a brief introduction of the four types of non‐C‐supported SACs based on the support used. Thereafter, a systemic summary of synthesis methods for non‐C‐supported SACs analyzing their advantages and disadvantages is provided. The interactions between single metal atoms and non‐C supports are discussed, followed by their applications in green energy conversion. Then, the significance of adopting a variety of in situ/operando approaches is emphasized to gain insight into both the synthesis and reaction mechanisms, which have been successfully deployed for non‐C‐supported SACs. Finally, the remaining challenges and perspectives on designing promising non‐C‐supported SACs are discussed.

Keywords

• green energy conversion
• metal–support interactions
• non-carbon supports
• single-atom catalysts
• synthesis methods