A General Strategy Based on Hetero-Charge Coupling Effect for Constructing Single-Atom Sites

Single-atom catalysts have emerged as cutting-edge hotspots in the field of material science owing to their excellent catalytic performance brought about by well-defined metal single-atom sites (M SASs). However, huge challenges still lie in achieving the rational design and precise synthesis of M SASs. Herein, we report a novel synthesis strategy based on the hetero-charge coupling effect (HCCE) to prepare M SASs loaded on N and S co-doped porous carbon (M₁/NSC). The proposed strategy was widely applied to prepare 17 types of M₁/NSC composed of single or multi-metal with the integrated regulation of the coordination environment and electronic structure, exhibiting good universality and flexible adjustability. Furthermore, this strategy provided a low-cost method of efficiently synthesizing M₁/NSC with high yields, that can produce more than 50 g catalyst at one time, which is key to large-scale production. Among various as-prepared unary M₁/NSC (M can be Fe, Co, Ni, V, Cr, Mn, Mo, Pd, W, Re, Ir, Pt, or Bi) catalysts, Fe₁/NSC delivered excellent performance for electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to NH₃ with high NH₃ Faradaic efficiency of 86.6 % and high NH₃ yield rate of 1.50 mg h^-1 mg_cat. ^-1 at -0.6 V vs. RHE. Even using Fe₁/NSC as a cathode in a Zn-nitrate battery, it exhibited a high open circuit voltage of 1.756 V and high energy density of 4.42 mW cm^-2 with good cycling stability.