Single-Atom Photocatalysts for Emerging Reactions

Single-atom photocatalysts have demonstrated an enormous potential in producing value-added chemicals and/or fuels using sustainable and clean solar light to replace fossil fuels causing global energy and environmental issues. These photocatalysts not only exhibit outstanding activities, selectivity, and stabilities due to their distinct electronic structures and unsaturated coordination centers but also tremendously reduce the consumption of catalytic metals owing to the atomic dispersion of catalytic species. Besides, the single-atom active sites facilitate the elucidation of reaction mechanisms and understanding of the structure-performance relationships. Presently, apart from the well-known reactions (H₂ production, N₂ fixation, and CO₂ conversion), various novel reactions are successfully catalyzed by single-atom photocatalysts possessing high efficiency, selectivity, and stability. In this contribution, we summarize and discuss the design and fabrication of single-atom photocatalysts for three different kinds of emerging reactions (i.e., reduction reactions, oxidation reactions, as well as redox reactions) to generate desirable chemicals and/or fuels. The relationships between the composition/structure of single-atom photocatalysts and their activity/selectivity/stability are explained in detail. Additionally, the insightful reaction mechanisms of single-atom photocatalysts are also introduced. Finally, we propose the possible opportunities in this area for the design and fabrication of brand-new high-performance single-atom photocatalysts.