Atomically-precise dopant-controlled single cluster catalysis for electrochemical nitrogen reduction

The ability to precisely engineer the doping of sub-nanometer bimetallic clusters offers exciting opportunities for tailoring their catalytic performance with atomic accuracy. However, the fabrication of singly dispersed bimetallic cluster catalysts with atomic-level control of dopants has been a long-standing challenge. Herein, we report a strategy for the controllable synthesis of a precisely doped single cluster catalyst consisting of partially ligand-enveloped Au4Pt2 clusters supported on defective graphene. This creates a bimetal single cluster catalyst (Au4Pt2/G) with exceptional activity for electrochemical nitrogen (N-2) reduction. Our mechanistic study reveals that each N-2 molecule is activated in the confined region between cluster and graphene. The heteroatom dopant plays an indispensable role in the activation of N-2 via an enhanced back donation of electrons to the N-2 LUMO. Moreover, besides the heteroatom Pt, the catalytic performance of single cluster catalyst can be further tuned by using Pd in place of Pt as the dopant. The fabrication of singly dispersed metal cluster catalysts with atomic-level control of dopants is a long-standing challenge. Here, the authors report a strategy for the synthesis of a precisely doped single cluster catalyst which shows exceptional activity for electrochemical dinitrogen reduction.