"Single-Atom Catalysis" Wins First Prize of the National Natural Science Award

The “singleatom catalysis” achievement completed by Academician Zhang Tao of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Academician Li Jun of Tsinghua University, and their teams won the First Prize of the State Natural Science Award in Beijing on July 8. This research stems from the longterm exploration by Chinese scientists based on supported metal catalysts. In 2009, the team prepared the world’s first practical supported singleatom catalyst, and in 2011 they took the lead in proposing the new concept of “singleatom catalysis,” driving catalysis research from the traditional micro and nanoscale toward the atomic scale. The report noted that this achievement has made important progress in areas such as the new concepts, new reactions, and dynamic mechanisms of singleatom catalysis, and has already had an impact on multiple fields including chemistry and chemical engineering, materials, and energy and the environment. Related technologies have also been applied in some industrial scenarios.