Molten salt-induction of geometrically deformed ruthenium single atom catalysts with high performance for aerobic oxidation of alcohols

Recently, construction of single atom catalysts (SACs) for heterogeneous organic transformations has attracted great interest, but accomplishing high selectivity for a specific product under mild conditions remains challenging. Herein, we report a facile molten salt-induced strategy for creating Ru single atoms anchored onto a geometrically deformed nitrogen-doped carbon (Ru1/NC) support. This Ru catalyst is characterized by a range of methods, including advanced electron microscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The results show that the Ru single atom catalyst is highly effective for benzyl alcohol oxidation reaction, achieving an exceptional catalytic efficiency (1 atm O2 @ 90 °C) with more than 99 % selectivity for benzaldehyde under nearly 100 % conversion, along with a high initial turnover frequency up to 1213 h−1. Moreover, excellent recyclability and substrate tolerance ability are validated. Density functional theory calculations further indicate that the high catalytic reactivity stems from strong electronic metal-support interactions. This work provides a new avenue in designing single atom catalysts at the atomic level for organic transformations.