news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

On August 16, the list of winners of the 2024 Future Science Prize was announced. Academician Li Yadong, president of Anhui Normal University, and Academician Zhang Tao, a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, jointly won the "Material Science Award". The award-winning comments given by the Scientific Committee of the Future Science Prize stated that the "Material Science Award" was awarded to Li Yadong and Zhang Tao in recognition of their pioneering contributions to the development and application of "single-atom catalysis".

Research results show that the chemical industry has an important impact on all aspects of modern society, and catalysis is the core technology of today's chemical industry. The development of efficient catalysts and corresponding feasible synthesis methods is one of the most important research goals in chemistry and chemical engineering. Solid-phase metal catalysts, usually nanoparticle catalysts, are widely used in industrial production.

In order to develop heterogeneous metal catalysts with optimal metal atom utilization and uniform catalytic sites and patterns, there have been reports on the development of catalysts that disperse metals on the surface of carriers with single metal atoms as heterogeneous catalytic centers since the 1960s, but this field has not been developed. The reason is that the lack of simple, feasible and widely applicable single-atom heterogeneous catalyst preparation and scientific characterization methods is the key factor restricting the development of this field.

Li Yadong and his collaborators systematically developed methods for the synthesis of single-atom catalysts that are designable, controllable, and universal. These methods can provide single-atom catalysts with defined morphologies and complexing environments. These methods have enabled the large-scale synthesis of single-atom catalysts with high loadings of central metals and uniform microstructures, laying the foundation for the application of such catalysts in industrial production. These methods are widely used in the synthesis of catalysts with various functions, thus promoting the development of single-atom catalysis in the fields of chemical engineering, materials, energy, and environment, making it more influential.

The pioneering work of Li Yadong and Zhang Tao has opened a door to understanding the active sites of heterogeneous metal catalysts and provided an effective way to regulate solid-phase catalysts with atomic precision. The single-atom catalysis research they led has become the most cutting-edge field of heterogeneous catalysis. Their research results have promoted the green, environmentally friendly, efficient and energy-saving industrial production of bulk chemicals such as vinyl chloride, acetic acid, and propanol, thus demonstrating the potential of single-atom catalysis to contribute to the sustainable development of human society.

Hefei Tong Client-Hefei Daily All-Media Reporter Zhuang Wenqian The picture comes from Anhui Normal University