Single-atom catalysis has arguably become the most active new frontier in heterogeneous catalysis. Aided by recent advances in practical synthetic methodologies, characterization techniques and computational modelling, we now have a large number of single-atom catalysts (SACs) that exhibit distinctive performances for a wide variety of chemical reactions. This Perspective summarizes recent experimental and computational efforts aimed at understanding the bonding in SACs and how this relates to catalytic performance. The examples described here illustrate the utility of SACs in a broad scope of industrially important reactions and highlight the advantages these catalysts have over those presently used. SACs have well-defined active centres, such that unique opportunities exist for the rational design of new catalysts with high activities, selectivities and stabilities. Indeed, given a certain practical application, we can often design a suitable SAC; thus, the field has developed very rapidly and afforded promising catalyst leads. Moreover, the control we have over certain SAC structures paves the way for designing base metal catalysts with the activities of noble metal catalysts. It appears that we are entering a new era of heterogeneous catalysis in which we have control over well-dispersed single-atom active sites whose properties we can readily tune.

可以说，单原子催化已成为非均相催化中最活跃的新领域。借助于实用的合成方法，表征技术和计算模型的最新进展，我们现在拥有大量的单原子催化剂（SAC），它们对多种化学反应均具有独特的性能。本《观点》总结了最近的实验和计算成果，旨在了解SAC中的键合及其与催化性能的关系。此处描述的实施例说明了SAC在广泛的工业重要反应中的用途，并突出了这些催化剂相对于目前使用的催化剂的优势。SAC具有定义明确的活动中心，因此存在合理设计高活性新型催化剂的独特机会，选择性和稳定性。确实，在一定的实际应用中，我们经常可以设计一个合适的SAC。因此，该领域发展非常迅速，并提供了有希望的催化剂线索。此外，我们对某些SAC结构的控制为设计具有贵金属催化剂活性的贱金属催化剂铺平了道路。看来我们正在进入非均相催化的新时代，在这个时代中，我们可以控制分散良好的单原子活性位点，这些位点的性质我们可以很容易地调节。我们对某些SAC结构的控制为设计具有贵金属催化剂活性的贱金属催化剂铺平了道路。看来我们正在进入非均相催化的新时代，在这个时代中，我们可以控制分散良好的单原子活性位点，这些位点的性质我们可以很容易地调节。我们对某些SAC结构的控制为设计具有贵金属催化剂活性的贱金属催化剂铺平了道路。看来我们正在进入非均相催化的新时代，在这个时代中，我们可以控制分散良好的单原子活性位点，这些位点的性质我们可以很容易地调节。