Single sites in heterogeneous catalysts: separating myth from reality

Heterogeneous catalytic processes are a staple of the sustainable chemical industry. One of the holy grails of contemporary catalysis science is the formation of the so-called single-site catalysts. The single-site character implies that the catalytically active species are structurally uniform, do not interact with each other, and exhibit identical affinity towards the substrates in the desired transformation. Achieving such characteristics in real-life materials is a challenge due to the complex nature of chemical transformations at surfaces. Surface organometallic chemistry (SOMC) has emerged as a powerful approach to form well-defined species on the surface of materials. In this short review, we discuss the myth and reality of single-site heterogeneous catalyst formation, with a primary focus on application of SOMC methodology.