Room-Temperature Laser Planting of High-Loading Single-Atom Catalysts for High-Efficiency Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Despite stunning progress in single-atom catalysis (SAC), it remains a grand challenge to yield a high loading of single atoms (SAs) anchored on substrates. Herein, we report a one-step laser-planting strategy to craft SAs of interest under an atmospheric temperature and pressure on various substrates including carbon, metals, and oxides. Laser pulses render concurrent creation of defects on the substrate and decomposition of precursors into monolithic metal SAs, which are immobilized on the as-produced defects via electronic interactions. Laser planting enables a high defect density, leading to a record-high loading of SAs of 41.8 wt %. Our strategy can also synthesize high-entropy SAs (HESAs) with the coexistence of multiple metal SAs, regardless of their distinct characteristics. An integrated experimental and theoretical study reveals that superior catalytic activity can be achieved when the distribution of metal atom content in HESAs resembles the distribution of their catalytic performance in a volcano plot of electrocatalysis. The noble-metal mass activity for a hydrogen evolution reaction within HESAs is 11-fold over that of commercial Pt/C. The laser-planting strategy is robust, opening up a simple and general route to attaining an array of low-cost, high-density SAs on diverse substrates under ambient conditions for electrochemical energy conversion.