Dr. Wenxing Chen received his BS degree from the School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University in 2011, and then received his PhD from the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (NSRL), University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2015. He joined Yadong Li’s group as a postdoc in the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University in 2016. Then he joined the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) in 2018. His current research interests focus on the rational-designed synthesis and synchrotron radiation-based advanced characterization (XANES and EXAFS) of atomically dispersed metallic catalysts. He was awarded as ‘‘Highly Cited Researchers’’ in chemistry by Clarivate in 2020-2022.

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Single-atom catalysts (SACs) are widely recognized as promising catalysts in the chemical and energy industries. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to develop SACs with ideal intrinsic activity, high stability, and low cost. Compared with traditional M-N₄ active sites, Metal-Nitrogen-Carbon (M-N-C) catalysts with asymmetric coordination structures have been rapidly developed in the field of catalysis. These could be attributed to their unique electronic and geometric structures, making asymmetric coordination a novel and attractive strategy. In this talk, several typical asymmetric M-N-C SACs are summarized, namely asymmetric M-Nx SACs, asymmetric M-Nx-O/S/P/B/Cl/I SACs and asymmetric M-M SACs. The research development and application of these advanced catalysts in electrocatalytic reactions such as oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) are illustrated.

Qihao Yang received his Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from University of Science and Technology of China in 2019. Afterward he joined in Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CNITECH) as a postdoctoral fellow. Currently, he is an associate professor of CNITECH. He has published 20 peer-refereed journal papers including in Adv. Mater., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Nat. Commun., Nano Lett., Chem. Soc. Rev. and other well-known journals in materials and chemistry. His main research interest is the development of controlled synthesis and catalytic applications of atomically dispersed metal materials.

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The continuous increase of CO₂ emissions has triggered a series of environmental problems, including the greenhouse effect and ocean acidification, which pose a significant threat to human survival and development. Therefore, controlling CO₂ emissions has become a widely-discussed issue both domestically and internationally. Catalyst structure design can efficiently facilitate the high-value utilization of CO₂, which not only reduces its emissions but also provides high-value added chemical products. This is not only an effective solution to the aforementioned environmental problems but also a crucial means to achieving artificial carbon cycle.

Dr. Honghui Ou is the professor, and doctoral supervisor of Chemical Engineering and Technology College, Xi'an Jiaotong University. He has published many papers as the first author/corresponding author in high-quality journals such as J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Adv. Mater. and ACS Catal.

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Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction is an effective way to promote the carbon cycle in nature, which can not only produce renewable energy but also alleviate the greenhouse effect and energy shortage. Photocatalytic CO₂ reduction processes include two redox reactions: reduction of CO₂ and oxidation of H₂O. The surface of semiconductor materials is the active site of CO₂ and H₂O adsorption, reaction, and product desorption. Different reaction sites will have important effects on the process of CO₂ reduction. Dr. Honghui Ou's research is mainly devoted to the development of efficient and stable metal single-atom, dual-single atom, and single-atom/particle active photocatalysts, which provides a theoretical basis and practical guidance for the development of structured photocatalysts and the mechanism of the CO2 reduction reaction.

Dr. Han Yan is currently working as an associate research fellow at University of Science and Technology of China. He received his Ph.D. degree from Shandong University in 2019. He then came to Tsinghua University as a Post-doc researcher for 2 years. His research interests focus on the design and fabrication of highly efficient nano-catalysts for thermal heterogeneous catalysis, especially the catalysts involving rare earth oxides for the conversion of C1 molecules.

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CeO₂, as a typical representative of rare earth oxides, is an extremely important catalytic material. The single-atom site catalysts M₁/CeO₂ are widely used in important C1 conversion reactions such as automotive exhaust treatment, water-gas shift, and CO₂ hydrogenation. During the catalytic process, the anchoring sites and coordination environment of metal single atoms on CeO₂ are crucial for the catalytic performance. Herein, we proposed several effective strategies to fabricate M₁/CeO₂ catalysts with stable structure and distinct catalytic performance, which made new exploration for the development of highly-efficient nano-catalysts.

Dr. Yanhong Quan is currently working as Associate Professor at Taiyuan University of Technology. She received Ph. D. degree from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research interests mainly focus on the design and application of functional zeolites and the synthesis of coal-based fine chemicals.

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With the fabrication of single atom catalysts (SACs) as a new concept, researches on catalysts have deep into smaller scale, which can make it available to dissect complex heterogeneous catalysis on atomic lever, simultaneously provide vast opportunities for applications in industrial catalysis because of their predominant performances. Based on the previous achievements, the main components of this research are as follows: the performance characteristics of SACs are summarized, the preparation, characterizations and theoretical approaches about SACs are introduced, the research developments of applications in CO oxidization, selective hydrogenation and photoelectrocatalysis reaction, etc. are illustrated, the influences of the exceptive electronic.

Structure of SACs on catalytic performance and reaction mechanism are analyzed, the breakthroughs and the shortages of SACs system are pointed out. All these discussions contribute to the profound understanding on principles of SACs, improvement of both theoretical and experimental researches, and furthermore put forward suggestions and prospective for expanding its application range and achieving industrial applications．

Dr Yu Xiong is currently working as an Associate Professor at Central South University. He received his Ph.D. degree from Central South University and spent two years at Tsinghua University as a postdoctoral. His research interests focus on the synthesis and performance of single atom catalysts.

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Direct formic acid fuel cells have been regarded as one of the most promising power sources for future portable electronic devices. Traditionally, Pd and Pt are usually considered to be the most efficient catalysts for the formic acid oxidation reaction. In this talk, I will present single atom Rh catalysts, which perform unexpected catalytic performance and the recent progress in Rh based single atom catalysts. Additionally, the other progress about the synthesis and design of novel single atom catalysts will also be discussed.

Dr. Yao Wang is currently working as an associate professor in Jiangnan University. He received his Ph.D degree from China University of Petroleum-Beijing. He then spent two years at Tsinghua University as postdoc. His research interests focus on at atomic-level synthesis of nanomaterials, and focuses on their catalytic applications based on energy and environment.

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Electrooxidation of C2 organic molecules is usually determined by the surface site structure of catalyst. Rational designing the surface sites of Pt-based nanocrystals at the atomic level is of vital significance to meet superior electrocatalytic performance criteria. Introducing foreign species, especially single-atom sites, onto the catalytic surface to construct synergistic dual-sites is efficient for complete oxidation of C2 molecules. In this talk, I will present the several catalytic surface in fundamental comprehension to reveal the promoting effect towards electrooxidation of C2 molecules.

Dr. Ge Meng is currently working as an assistant research fellow at Wenzhou University. He received his Ph.D. degree from Beijing University of Chemical Technology. He then spent three years at Tsinghua University as postdoc before joining in Wenzhou University. His research interests focus on single-atom- and nano-catalyst design for energy conversion reactions.

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With the merits of high atom utilization, low cost, unique and tunable microstructures, as well as the particular catalytic behaviors, single-atom catalysts (SACs) have gained worldwide interests and achieved great advancements in heterogeneous catalysis recently. However, catalyzing an intricate multistep reaction is usually challenging for one single-atom center, in which case multiple catalytic sites are needed. In this report, I will show our recent progresses in the construction of multi-active-site SACs and their applications in some complex energy conversion reactions, such as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, lignin disassembly, etc. The microstructures of different active centers and their catalytic behaviors during catalysis will be emphatically discussed.