(316a) Single Atom Catalysis: From an Academic Curiosity to Industrial Applications

Over the past decade, single atom catalysis has evolved from being an academic curiosity to one of the most widely studied methods for the synthesis of novel catalytic materials [1]. The promise of single atom catalysts is to lower the requirements for platinum group metals by utilizing these metals more efficiently and to create novel catalytic pathways. For industrial applications, single atom catalysts need to be stable under reaction conditions and demonstrate durability during accelerated aging. Recent research shows pathways for scalable synthesis of single atom catalysts that might deliver catalysts meeting the thermal durability requirements of industry while yielding reactivity improvements over conventional supported metal nanoparticle catalysts. Since mobile single atoms constitute the dominant mechanism for catalyst sintering via Ostwald ripening, improving the stability of single atoms could help improve the durability of all heterogeneous catalysts used in industry. In this presentation we will describe recent work on an approach which we termed atom trapping [2]. Our initial work focused on trapping volatile metal oxides such as PtO2, to improve the durability of Pt catalysts, but we are now learning how this approach can be more broadly applicable. We will describe how fundamental understanding of the stabilization of single atoms and sub-nanometer particles and clusters can be helpful in applications ranging from emission control to hydrocarbon conversion.

[1] A.K. Datye and H. Guo, Single atom catalysis poised to transition from an academic curiosity to an industrially relevant technology. Nature Communications 12(1), 1-3 (2021).

[2] Jones, J., et al. Thermally Stable Single-atom Platinum-on-ceria Catalysts via Atom Trapping. Science 353, 150-154 (2016).