Cyclized Polyacrylonitrile as a Promising Support for Single Atom Metal Catalyst with Synergistic Active Site

作者：Lulu Liu, Yandong Duan, Yu Hsuan Liang, Amin Kan, Lin Wang, Qingzhi Luo, Yaqian Zhang, Bingkai Zhang, Zhen Li, Jing Liu, Desong Wang · 发表于：Small · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1002/smll.202104142 · 被引用次数：20 · 研究领域：Nanomaterials for catalytic reactions、Catalytic Processes in Materials Science、Asymmetric Hydrogenation and Catalysis

Metal single atom catalysts (SAC) have been successfully used in heterogeneous catalysis but developing a scalable and economic support for SAC is still a great challenge. Here, cyclized polyacrylonitrile (CPAN) is proposed as a promising support for single atom metal catalysts. CPAN can be easily prepared from cheap industrial product polyacrylonitrile (PAN), which has excellent processability. A series of SAC on CPAN (M/CPAN, M = Ag, Cu, Ru) are designed and the catalytic activities of the as synthesized M/CPAN are investigated by the model reduction reaction of p-nitrophenol (4-NP). M/CPAN presents excellent catalytic performance with high stability and theoretical calculations elucidate that Ag/CPAN synergistically catalyze 4-NP reduction following the Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) mechanism with 4-NP preferentially adsorbing at the Ag sites and H adsorbing at the bridge C sites. These results, for the first time, reveal that the single atom on CPAN can catalyze 4-NP reduction efficiently. This methodology provides a convenient route for the preparation of a variety of SAC, and this strategy is readily scalable and holds great potential in catalytic applications.