Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Tieu, Peter
• Yan, Xingxu
• Xu, Mingjie
• Christopher, Phillip
• Pan, Xiaoqing

Titel

Directly Probing the Local Coordination, Charge State, and Stability of Single Atom Catalysts by Advanced Electron Microscopy: A Review

Ist Teil von

• Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany), 2021-04, Vol.17 (16), p.e2006482-n/a

Ort / Verlag

Germany: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Wiley Online Library Journals Frontfile Complete

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The drive for atom efficient catalysts with carefully controlled properties has motivated the development of single atom catalysts (SACs), aided by a variety of synthetic methods, characterization techniques, and computational modeling. The distinct capabilities of SACs for oxidation, hydrogenation, and electrocatalytic reactions have led to the optimization of activity and selectivity through composition variation. However, characterization methods such as infrared and X‐ray spectroscopy are incapable of direct observations at atomic scale. Advances in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) including aberration correction, monochromators, environmental TEM, and micro‐electro‐mechanical system based in situ holders have improved catalysis study, allowing researchers to peer into regimes previously unavailable, observing critical structural and chemical information at atomic scale. This review presents recent development and applications of TEM techniques to garner information about the location, bonding characteristics, homogeneity, and stability of SACs. Aberration corrected TEM imaging routinely achieves sub‐Ångstrom resolution to reveal the atomic structure of materials. TEM spectroscopy provides complementary information about local composition, chemical bonding, electronic properties, and atomic/molecular vibration with superior spatial resolution. In situ/operando TEM directly observe the evolution of SACs under reaction conditions. This review concludes with remarks on the challenges and opportunities for further development of TEM to study SACs. In this review, the recent developments and applications of transmission electron microscopy to study the coordination, charge state, and stability of single atom catalysts are discussed. Some challenges and perspective for the future of electron microscopy as applied to single atom catalysts concludes the review.