NEWT Seed Funding - Exploring Single Atom Catalyst for Water Treatment - Oxoanion Reduction

This exploratory project seeks to advance the water treatment catalysts from the nano-scale toward the single atom scale - a theoretical limit in the endeavor of decreasing the size of catalysts for maximum active sites and minimal usage of valuable noble metals. We hypothesize that atomic efficiency of the metal catalyst can be maximized by reducing its size from nanoscale to single atom scale as well as by tailoring unsaturated coordination state, which will enhance the selective interaction with substrate and electron abstraction, a critical steps for various catalytic reactions. In particular, we expect this scheme can be useful in the reduction of oxoanions such as nitrate and bromate, either through hydrogenation or photocatalysis.