Professors Nanfeng Zheng and Gang Fu Research Groups have made important progress in the preparation and catalytic mechanism of single atom dispersed catalyst. Related result entitled “Photochemical route for synthesizing atomically dispersed palladium catalysts”（Science 2016, 352, 797-800） was published on May 13^thby Science.

  Abstract:

  Atomically dispersed noble metal catalysts often exhibit high catalytic performances, but the metal loading density must be kept low(usually below 0.5%) to avoid the formation of metal nanoparticles through sintering. We report a photochemical strategy to fabricate a stable atomically dispersed palladium–titanium oxide catalyst (Pd₁/TiO₂) on ethylene glycolate(EG)–stabilized ultrathin TiO₂ nanosheets containing Pd up to 1.5%.The Pd₁/TiO₂ catalyst exhibited high catalytic activity in hydrogenation of C=C bonds, exceeding that of surface Pd atoms on commercial Pdcatalysts by a factor of 9. No decay in the activity was observed for 20 cycles. More important, the Pd₁/TiO₂-EG system could activate H₂ in a heterolytic pathway, leading to a catalytic enhancement in hydrogenation of aldehydes by a factor of more than 55.