Cyclized Polyacrylonitrile as a Promising Support for Single Atom Metal Catalyst with Synergistic Active Site

Abstract Metal single atom catalysts (SAC) have been successfully used in heterogeneous catalysis but developing a scalable and economic support for SAC is still a great challenge. Here, cyclized polyacrylonitrile (CPAN) is proposed as a promising support for single atom metal catalysts. CPAN can be easily prepared from cheap industrial product polyacrylonitrile (PAN), which has excellent processability. A series of SAC on CPAN (M/CPAN, M = Ag, Cu, Ru) are designed and the catalytic activities of the as synthesized M/CPAN are investigated by the model reduction reaction of p ‐nitrophenol (4‐NP). M/CPAN presents excellent catalytic performance with high stability and theoretical calculations elucidate that Ag/CPAN synergistically catalyze 4‐NP reduction following the Langmuir–Hinshelwood (L‐H) mechanism with 4‐NP preferentially adsorbing at the Ag sites and H adsorbing at the bridge C sites. These results, for the first time, reveal that the single atom on CPAN can catalyze 4‐NP reduction efficiently. This methodology provides a convenient route for the preparation of a variety of SAC, and this strategy is readily scalable and holds great potential in catalytic applications.