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Nano Research 2024, 17(4): 2808-2813 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6146-4
Research Article | Issue | Published: 28 September 2023

Single-atom alloys prepared by two-step thermal evaporation

Show Author's Information Honglin Wang1,§,  Jing Li1,2,§,  Meirong Huang1,  Jizhe Cui1,  Zhiying Cheng1,  Rong Yu1,  Hongwei Zhu1( )
State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
State Key Lab of Solid Waste Reuse for Building Materials, Beijing Building Materials Academy of Science Research, Beijing 100041, China

§ Honglin Wang and Jing Li contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
density functional theory, thermal evaporation, single-atom alloys
Topics:
Catalyst activityDepositionHigh resolution transmission electron microscopyNanocrystalline alloys Structural designX-ray absorption spectroscopy
Cite this article:
Wang H, Li J, Huang M, et al. Single-atom alloys prepared by two-step thermal evaporation. Nano Research, 2024, 17(4): 2808-2813. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6146-4
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Single-atom alloys (SAAs) have gained significant attention due to their remarkable atomic utilization efficiency, interactions between single atoms (SAs) and metal supports, and free-atom-like electronic structure of dopant elements. In this work, we observed the formation of SAs in pre-deposited metal particles by a two-step thermal evaporation technique, thereby establishing the first instance of discovering SAAs by thermal evaporation. The discovery of SAAs by thermal evaporation extends the range of SAAs preparation methods to include this traditional synthetic technique, which offers convenience, cost-efficiency, and universality. The formation mechanism of SAAs prepared using this technique was elucidated by density functional theory calculations. It was demonstrated that thermal evaporation can be utilized to prepare SAAs with multiple SAs, further highlighting its universal applicability.


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Abstract
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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Single-atom alloys prepared by two-step thermal evaporation

Show Author's information Honglin Wang1,§, Jing Li1,2,§, Meirong Huang1, Jizhe Cui1, Zhiying Cheng1, Rong Yu1, Hongwei Zhu1( )
State Key Lab of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
State Key Lab of Solid Waste Reuse for Building Materials, Beijing Building Materials Academy of Science Research, Beijing 100041, China

§ Honglin Wang and Jing Li contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Single-atom alloys (SAAs) have gained significant attention due to their remarkable atomic utilization efficiency, interactions between single atoms (SAs) and metal supports, and free-atom-like electronic structure of dopant elements. In this work, we observed the formation of SAs in pre-deposited metal particles by a two-step thermal evaporation technique, thereby establishing the first instance of discovering SAAs by thermal evaporation. The discovery of SAAs by thermal evaporation extends the range of SAAs preparation methods to include this traditional synthetic technique, which offers convenience, cost-efficiency, and universality. The formation mechanism of SAAs prepared using this technique was elucidated by density functional theory calculations. It was demonstrated that thermal evaporation can be utilized to prepare SAAs with multiple SAs, further highlighting its universal applicability.

Keywords: density functional theory, thermal evaporation, single-atom alloys

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 31 July 2023
Revised: 29 August 2023
Accepted: 30 August 2023
Published: 28 September 2023
Issue date: April 2024

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52172046).

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