Microenvironment Engineering of Single/Dual-Atom Catalysts for Electrocatalytic Application

Abstract

Single/dual-metal atoms supported on carbon matrix can be modulated by coordination structure and neighboring active sites. Precisely designing the geometric and electronic structure and uncovering the structure–property relationships of single/dual-metal atoms confront with grand challenges. Herein, this review summarizes the latest progress in microenvironment engineering of single/dual-atom active sites via a comprehensive comparison of single-atom catalyst (SACs) and dual-atom catalysts (DACs) in term of design principles, modulation strategy, and theoretical understanding of structure–performance correlations. Subsequently, recent advances in several typical electrocatalysis process are discussed to get general understanding of the reaction mechanisms on finely-tuned SACs and DACs. Finally, full-scaled summaries of the challenges and prospects are given for microenvironment engineering of SACs and DACs. This review will provide new inspiration on the development of atomically dispersed catalysts for electrocatalytic application.