From Nanocatalysts to Single-Atom Catalysts

Dear Colleagues,

Nanocatalysts are a series of catalysts at the nanoscale level and show very excellent catalytic activity in various applications, especially in bio- or energy applications. With the rapid development of nanotechnology in past decades, different nanocatalysts with various nanostructures (nanocube, nanosphere, nanotube, nanowire, nanoflower, etc ) are designed and show huge potential in energy conversion (oxygen/hydrogen reduction and evaluation, CO2 reduction, urea oxidation, etc ), energy storage (batteries, supercapacitors, etc), and biomedical applications (biosensor, nanomedicine, antibacterial, etc). To continuously enhance the catalytic properties, lots of effort contribute to downsizing nano-level catalysts into the single-atom catalyst. The single-atom catalyst, aka single-atomic sites catalysts, owns numerous active sites that existed as isolated single-atom sites, which exhibit the theoretical one hundred percent utilization of active metal atoms, homogeneity of active sites, and particular geometric structure. Such advanced catalysts already show wide applications in energy conversion like fuel cells and water splitting. Also, some special single-atom catalysts with enzyme-like activities are also named single-atom nanozymes for biosensing and biomedical applications. Their superior catalytical properties and unique electronic/geometric structures endow them with continuous boost catalytic activity and stability, enhance the sensitivity in bio/electrochemical sensors, as well as improve the treatment efficiency of catalytical-based nanomedicine. 

This Special Issue aims to cover the recent advances in nanocatalysts or single-atom catalysts, including but not limited to topics of electrocatalysts, photocatalysts, nanozymes, and various energy and biomedical applications.

Prof. Dr. Jincheng Li
Dr. Shichao Ding
Dr. Zhaoyuan Lyu
Dr. Xin Li
Guest Editors

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• nanocatalysts
• single-atom catalysts
• active sites control and design
• energy storage and conversion
• biosensingng and medical applications