From Earth-Abundant Mineral Sources to High-Efficiency Dual-Atom Catalysts: A Chloride-Guided One-Pot Synthesis...

While atomically dispersed catalysts (ADCs) exhibit exceptional catalytic performance, their scalable synthesis remains challenging due to metal aggregation tendencies. Traditional preparation methods relying on precursor optimization and multi-step protocols often fail to ensure atomic dispersion. In this work, a groundbreaking chloride-mediated diffusion strategy is introduced to synthesize carbon-supported ADCs, with the strategically designed Fe-Mg hetero-diatomic pair catalyst as a pioneering demonstration. This approach enables the spontaneous conversion of diverse metal precursors-including earth-abundant unprocessed mineral ores into volatile metal chlorides under HCl, which subsequently diffuse and atomically anchor on nitrogen-doped carbon supports. The Fe-Mg dual-atom catalyst, featuring synergistic metal coordination, exhibits remarkable CO₂ electroreduction activity, underscoring the method's capacity to create heteronuclear active sites. This strategy bypasses precursor limitations and complex procedures, offering a universal, viable pathway to scalable ADC fabrication, with the Fe-Mg system exemplifying its transformative potential for designing advanced multi-atomic catalysts.