Key Takeaways & Executive Findings
- •• Successfully fabricated atomically dispersed dual-atom catalyst featuring Pt1-Ru1 sites anchored on defective graphene (Pt1Ru1/ND@G). • Achieves high turnover frequency of 17.6 × 10−2 s−1 for CO oxidation at 30 °C, 10 times higher than Pt1/ND@G and outperforming previous reports. • Pt-Ru bond enhances metallicity of both Pt and Ru atoms, facilitating simultaneous adsorption and activation of CO and O2, overcoming limitations of single-atom catalysts. • Catalyst demonstrates excellent stability, maintaining activity for 40 h at 80 °C without significant deactivation.
Abstract
Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have demonstrated excellent performance in heterogeneous catalytic reactions owing to their maximized atomic efficiency, distinctive geometric, and electronic configurations. However, the efficacy of SACs remains limited for certain reactions requiring simultaneous activation of multiple reactants over metallic active sites. Herein, we report an atomically dispersed Pt1Ru1 dual-atom pair site anchored on nanodiamond@graphene (ND@G) for CO oxidation. The Pt1Ru1 dual-atom catalyst shows an exceptional turnover frequency (TOF) of 17.6 × 10−2 s−1 at significantly lower temperature (30 °C), achieving a tenfold increase in TOF compared to single-atom Pt1/ND@G catalyst (1.5 × 10−2 s−1) and surpassing to previously reported Pt-based catalysts under similar conditions. Moreover, the catalyst demonstrates excellent stability, maintaining its activity for 40 h at 80 °C without significant deactivation. The superior catalytic performance of Pt-Ru dual-atom catalysts is attributed to the synergistic effect between Pt and Ru atoms with enhanced metallicity for improving simultaneous adsorption and activation of CO and O2, and the tuning of conventional competitive reactant adsorption into a non-competitive pathway over dual-atom pair sites. The present work manifests the advantages of dual-atom pair sites in heterogeneous catalysis and paves the way for precise design of catalysts at the atomic scale.
1. Introduction
Low-temperature CO oxidation holds significance in the environment and fundamental catalysis due to its crucial application in automobile emission purification [1, 2] and the role as a model reaction in investigating the structure–activity relationship and reaction mechanism [3, 4]. Although precious metal catalysts have been extensively studied for CO oxidation due to their exceptional catalytic activity [5–8], the natural scarcity and high cost impede their practical application. The effective strategy to enhance metal utilization efficiency is to reduce the size of catalyst particle, making single-atom catalysts (SACs) an ideal solution [9–11]. SACs not only achieve near-perfect atom utilization efficiency but also provide highly uniform active sites with distinct geometric coordination and electronic properties. These features enable SACs to outperform conventional nanoparticle catalysts in various reactions, such as selective oxidation and hydrogenation [12–16].
However, it is undeniable that the single-site nature of SACs inherently limits their ability to co-activate multiple reactants simultaneously, such as CO and O2 in CO oxidation owing to their competitive adsorption, especially when metal species are supported on inert supports [17, 18]. Additionally, the diminished metallicity in single-atom sites further compromises the catalytic activity [19, 20]. Recent studies have revealed that fully exposed cluster catalysts (FECCs) address the limitations of SACs through spatially adjacent sites, providing diverse structural configurations and versatile catalytic functionalities [21–23]. While this ensemble effect of atomically dispersed sites could enhance the catalytic performance, the variability in size
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Yanan Qi, Hongqiu Chen, Feng Hong, Xiangbin Cai, Zhehan Ying, Jiangyong Diao, Zhimin Jia, Jiawei Chen, Ning Wang, Shengling Xiang, Xiaowen Chen, Guodong Wen, Bo Sun, Geng Sun, Hongyang Liu (2026). Atomically Dispersed Pt-Ru Dual-Atom Catalysts for Efficient Low-Temperature CO Oxidation Reaction. Nano-Micro Letters. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-025-01997-6
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main achievement of this study?
The study successfully fabricated an atomically dispersed Pt1Ru1 dual-atom catalyst on nanodiamond@graphene (ND@G) that achieves a high turnover frequency of 17.6 × 10−2 s−1 for CO oxidation at 30 °C, which is 10 times higher than the single-atom Pt1/ND@G catalyst and outperforms previously reported Pt-based catalysts.
How does the Pt-Ru dual-atom catalyst overcome the limitations of single-atom catalysts?
The Pt-Ru bond enhances the metallicity of both Pt and Ru atoms, facilitating the simultaneous adsorption and activation of CO and O2. This synergistic effect transforms the conventional competitive adsorption into a non-competitive pathway, overcoming the limitations of single-atom catalysts in co-activating multiple reactants.
What is the stability of the Pt1Ru1/ND@G catalyst?
The catalyst demonstrates excellent stability, maintaining its activity for 40 hours at 80 °C without significant deactivation.
What is the significance of this work for heterogeneous catalysis?
This work manifests the advantages of dual-atom pair sites in heterogeneous catalysis, providing a strategy for precise design of catalysts at the atomic scale and paving the way for efficient low-temperature CO oxidation.
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