Catalysts development is an evolutionary process. The generation of new single-metal-site catalysts, with isolated metal atoms dispersed on the surface of substrates, offers maximum atom-utilization efficiency, high specific activity, and novel properties. The unique structure of single-site catalysts also enables their potential to bridge the gap between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. This field is at an early stage, characterized by important discoveries and novel demonstrations of catalytic properties associated with the fine structure of single metal sites; however, specific applications, especially catalytic hydrogenation reactions, are still lacking. The focus of this short review is on applications of single-site catalysts in the hydrogen economy based on our studies of hydrogen generation/storage via single-metal-site catalysts. We hope this work will inspire the development of single-site catalysts for other applications.

催化剂的发展是一个进化的过程。新的单金属中心催化剂的产生，使孤立的金属原子分散在基材表面，提供了最大的原子利用效率，高比活度和新颖的性能。单中心催化剂的独特结构还使其具有弥合均相和异相催化之间差距的潜力。该领域处于早期阶段，其特征是重要的发现和与单一金属位点的精细结构有关的催化特性的新颖证明。然而，仍然缺乏特定的应用，特别是催化氢化反应。这篇简短的评论的重点是基于我们对单金属中心型催化剂产生/存储氢的研究，研究单中心型催化剂在氢经济中的应用。