Supported atomically dispersed metal catalysts (called single atom catalysts. i.e., SACS) have witnessed a growing interest in a wide range of catalytic reactions. These catalysts benefit from the advantages of both homogeneous (i.e., high selectivity and well-defined sites) and heterogeneous (i.e., high stability and easy separation) catalysts. They owe their exceptional catalytic performance to the intimate electronic interactions between the isolated active sites and the support surface, called ligands. Based on our previous research, we hypothesized that the formation of metal particles is caused by water in the hydration sheaths of dried precursors which causes agglomeration of even electrostatically adsorbed precursors during drying. To address this challenge, an organic chelating agent is introduced immediately after the precursor incipient impregnation step. We hypothesized that the chelating agent will anchor the metal precursor on the support surface and will overcome the tendency of precursor agglomeration during drying. The schematic of this approach, which we have termed chelate fixation (CheFi) is shown in figure 1-a.<br/><br/>Here, we compared old synthesis methods with our new method to prove the effectiveness of CheFi method for producing a series of structure-well-defined SAC supported on VXC-72. We used, Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM). Figure 1-b shows the STEM images of all three catalysts.

Straightforward method for synthesis of supported single atom catalysts via chelate fixation

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