The next decade of single-atom materials.

Heterogeneous catalysis,which takes place at the interface of two phases,plays a great contribution to modern industry because it involves complex processes on multiple spatial and temporal scales,especially in the fields of polymers,chemical engineering,energy conversion and storage,environmental protection,and life and health.Since 2011[1],single-atom materials(SAMs)have emerged as one of the most promising and practical frontiers of research in heterogeneous catalysis,due to the following advan-tages:(i)the unique structure with unsaturated atomic coordina-tion is promising in the tuning of surface electronic valence states,thus contributing extraordinary activity and high selectivity to the catalyst;(ii)the great cost benefits from high atom utiliza-tion and low by-products from high selectivity greatly meet the human vision of low energy consumption and low carbon emission development;(iii)the fine processing of catalysts to reasonably regulate the strong electronic and covalent interactions to over-come the thermal stability and other problems of traditional homogeneous catalysts;(iv)adhering to the advantages of multi-phase catalysis for easy separation and recovery from raw materi-als and products,which provides the basis for large-scale application in industrial process operations.