Surface Organometallic Chemistry for Single-site Catalysis and Single-atom Catalysis

Although driven by different research interests, single-site catalysts and single-atom catalysts are both believed to be model systems bridging homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. The two concepts are similar but different. In this review, we will first explain the difference between single-atom catalysis and single-site catalysis, in terms of their goals, synthetic methods and coordination structures of corresponding catalysts. Then, we will introduce the surface organometallic chemistry method, a method traditionally used for synthesizing single-site catalyst. We will explain why it might benefit the single-atom catalysis community. At last, the choice of support to accommodate the method for synthesizing single-atom catalysts will be discussed.