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  • Stable iridium dinuclear he...
    Zhao, Yanyan; Yang, Ke R.; Wang, Zechao; Yan, Xingxu; Cao, Sufeng; Ye, Yifan; Dong, Qi; Zhang, Xizi; Thorne, James E.; Jin, Lei; Materna, Kelly L.; Trimpalis, Antonios; Bai, Hongye; Fakra, Sirine C.; Zhong, Xiaoyan; Wang, Peng; Pan, Xiaoqing; Guo, Jinghua; Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, Maria; Brudvig, Gary W.; Batista, Victor S.; Wang, Dunwei

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 03/2018, Volume: 115, Issue: 12
    Journal Article

    Atomically dispersed catalysts refer to substrate-supported heterogeneous catalysts featuring one or a few active metal atoms that are separated from one another. They represent an important class of materials ranging from single-atom catalysts (SACs) and nanoparticles (NPs). While SACs and NPs have been extensively reported, catalysts featuring a few atoms with well-defined structures are poorly studied. The difficulty in synthesizing such structures has been a critical challenge. Here we report a facile photochemical method that produces catalytic centers consisting of two Ir metal cations, bridged by O and stably bound to a support. Direct evidence unambiguously supporting the dinuclear nature of the catalysts anchored on α-Fe₂O₃ is obtained by aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (AC-STEM). Experimental and computational results further reveal that the threefold hollow binding sites on the OH-terminated surface of α-Fe₂O₃ anchor the catalysts to provide outstanding stability against detachment or aggregation. The resulting catalysts exhibit high activities toward H₂O photooxidation.