Boosting the performance of single-atom catalysts via external electric field polarization
Yanghang Pan, Xinzhu Wang, Weiyang Zhang, Lingyu Tang, Zhangyan Mu, Cheng Liu, Bailin Tian, Muchun Fei, Yamei Sun, Huanhuan Su, Libo Gao, Peng Wang, Xiangfeng Duan, Jing Ma, Mengning Ding
Abstract
Single-atom catalysts represent a unique catalytic system with high atomic utilization and tunable reaction pathway. Despite current successes in their optimization and tailoring through structural and synthetic innovations, there is a lack of dynamic modulation approach for the single-atom catalysis. Inspired by the electrostatic interaction within specific natural enzymes, here we show the performance of model single-atom catalysts anchored on two-dimensional atomic crystals can be systematically and efficiently tuned by oriented external electric fields. Superior electrocatalytic performance have been achieved in single-atom catalysts under electrostatic modulations. Theoretical investigations suggest a universal "onsite electrostatic polarization" mechanism, in which electrostatic fields significantly polarize charge distributions at the single-atom sites and alter the kinetics of the rate determining steps, leading to boosted reaction performances. Such field-induced on-site polarization offers a unique strategy for simulating the catalytic processes in natural enzyme systems with quantitative, precise and dynamic external electric fields.