Addressing the quantitative conversion bottleneck in single-atom catalysis

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30551-w
• Publication Date: 2022-05-19T10:04:29Z
• Authors: Zhongxin Chen; Jingting Song; Rongrong Zhang; Runlai Li; Qikun Hu; Pingping Wei; Shibo Xi; Xin Zhou; Phuc T. T. Nguyen; Hai M. Duong; Poh Seng Lee; Xiaoxu Zhao; Ming Joo Koh; Ning Yan; Kian Ping Loh
• Keywords: Science; Q; 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy; Article; 0104 chemical sciences

AbstractSingle-atom catalysts (SACs) offer many advantages, such as atom economy and high chemoselectivity; however, their practical application in liquid-phase heterogeneous catalysis is hampered by the productivity bottleneck as well as catalyst leaching. Flow chemistry is a well-established method to increase the conversion rate of catalytic processes, however, SAC-catalysed flow chemistry in packed-bed type flow reactor is disadvantaged by low turnover number and poor stability. In this study, we demonstrate the use of fuel cell-type flow stacks enabled exceptionally high quantitative conversion in single atom-catalyzed reactions, as exemplified by the use of Pt SAC-on-MoS2/graphite felt catalysts incorporated in flow cell. A turnover frequency of approximately 8000 h−1 that corresponds to an aniline productivity of 5.8 g h−1 is achieved with a bench-top flow module (nominal reservoir volume of 1 cm3), with a Pt1-MoS2 catalyst loading of 1.5 g (3.2 mg of Pt). X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy combined with density functional theory calculations provide insights into stability and reactivity of single atom Pt supported in a pyramidal fashion on MoS2. Our study highlights the quantitative conversion bottleneck in SAC-mediated fine chemicals production can be overcome using flow chemistry.