Conflicting Roles of Coordination Number on Catalytic Performance of Single-Atom Pt Catalysts

Tailoring the coordination number (CN) of metal atoms has been increasingly recognized as one of the strategies to enhance the catalytic performance of single-atom catalysts (SACs). We here present the single-atom Pt loaded onto a semiconductor SiC substrate (Pt-1/SiC) with a high loading of up to 9.6 wt % and a precise control of its CN from 3 to 5. The CN tuning was enabled by binding organic linkers on the substrate surface and retaining the metal-linker bonds after photoreduction and mild thermal treatment from 80 to 160 degrees C. At a higher temperature, Pt became coordinated with additional oxygen atoms from the surface Si-OH groups and organic linkers. This resulted in the increase of the CN from 3 for Pt-1 treated at 80 degrees C to 5 at 160 degrees C. The Pt-1/SiCs with varying CNs effectively broke C-Br bonds in the model brominated compounds through both thermocatalysis using H-2 and photocatalysis using H* as the source for strongly reducing atomic hydrogen (H-atom). The thermocatalytic debromination kinetics increased with the decreasing CN. However, photocatalytic debromination kinetics were independent of the CN, contradictory to the prevalent understanding in literature. We attribute the differential CN effects on these two catalytic schemes to the differences in the pathways for the formation of H-atom as well as the rate-limiting step of the overall reaction pathways. Our study presents a unique and important example as to how the performance of SACs and the role of CN can significantly vary depending on the catalytic schemes.

Automated summary

Tailoring the coordination number of metal atoms can enhance the catalytic performance of single-atom catalysts. In this study, Pt loaded onto a SiC substrate showed different catalytic effects for thermocatalysis and photocatalysis as the coordination number was varied. The findings suggest that the role of coordination number in catalytic reactions can vary depending on the specific catalytic mechanisms.