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Nanomaterials
Special Issues
Recent Progress on Single-Atom and Nanocluster Materials
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Recent Progress on Single-Atom and Nanocluster Materials

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy and Catalysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2025) | Viewed by 506

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Bing Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
Interests: in situ characterization of nanomaterials; surface physical chemistry; single-atom catalysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Materials composed of single atoms or nanoclusters have unique physical and chemical properties distinct from bulk or traditional nanomaterials, with the maximum utilization rate of atoms. Compared with traditional nanomaterials, single-atom catalysts/materials have been widely used in heterogeneous catalysis, battery, solar cell and other fields. Nanoclusters are mesoscopic particles ranging from several atoms to thousands of atoms in size, which are composed of a few to a few hundred atoms typically. Due to the atomic precision and unique chemical structure, nanoclusters have important applications in optics, biology, catalysis and other fields.

This Special Issue aims to collect the recent progress on single-atom and nanocluster materials and mainly focuses on the structures and properties of single-atom and nanocluster materials, including but not limited to their preparation, characterization, properties, strengthening mechanisms and applications. Both articles and reviews are welcome for this Special Issue.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Bing Yang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • single atom
  • nanocluster
  • atomic structure
  • theoretical calculations heterogeneous catalysis
  • electronic device
  • characterization

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 5694 KiB  
Article
Constructing of Ni-Nx Active Sites in Self-Supported Ni Single-Atom Catalysts for Efficient Reduction of CO2 to CO
by Xuemei Zhou, Chunxia Meng, Wanqiang Yu, Yijie Wang, Luyun Cui, Tong Li and Jingang Wang
Nanomaterials 2025, 15(6), 473; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano15060473 - 20 Mar 2025
Viewed by 288
Abstract
The electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) represents a promising approach for achieving CO2 resource utilization. Carbon-based materials featuring single-atom transition metal-nitrogen coordination (M-Nx) have attracted considerable research attention due to their ability to maximize catalytic efficiency while [...] Read more.
The electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) represents a promising approach for achieving CO2 resource utilization. Carbon-based materials featuring single-atom transition metal-nitrogen coordination (M-Nx) have attracted considerable research attention due to their ability to maximize catalytic efficiency while minimizing metal atom usage. However, conventional synthesis methods often encounter challenges with metal particle agglomeration. In this study, we developed a Ni-doped polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) fiber membrane via electrospinning, subsequently transformed into a nitrogen-doped three-dimensional self-supporting single-atom Ni catalyst (Ni-N-CF) through controlled carbonization. PVDF was partially defluorinated and crosslinked, and the single carbon chain is changed into a reticulated structure, which ensured that the structure did not collapse during carbonization and effectively solved the problem of runaway M-Nx composite in the high-temperature pyrolysis process. Grounded in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS), nitrogen coordinates with nickel atoms to form a Ni-N structure, which keeps nickel in a low oxidation state, thereby facilitating CO2RR. When applied to CO2RR, the Ni-N-CF catalyst demonstrated exceptional CO selectivity with a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 92%. The unique self-supporting architecture effectively addressed traditional electrode instability issues caused by catalyst detachment. These results indicate that by tuning the local coordination structure of atomically dispersed Ni, the original inert reaction sites can be activated into efficient catalytic centers. This work can provide a new strategy for designing high-performance single-atom catalysts and structurally stable electrodes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Progress on Single-Atom and Nanocluster Materials)
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