Atomic-Scale Insights into the Low-Temperature Oxidation of Methanol over a Single-Atom Pt₁-Co₃O₄ Catalyst

Heterogeneous catalysts with single-atom active sites offer a means of expanding the industrial application of noble metal catalysts. Herein, an atomically dispersed Pt₁-Co₃O₄ catalyst is presented, which exhibits an exceptionally high efficiency for the total oxidation of methanol. Experimental and theoretical investigations indicate that this catalyst consists of Pt sites with a large proportion of occupied high electronic states. These sites possess a strong affinity for inactive Co²⁺ sites and anchor over the surface of (111) crystal plane, which increases the metal–support interaction of the Pt₁-Co₃O₄ material and accelerates the rate of oxygen vacancies regeneration. In turn, this is determined to promote the coadsorption of the probe methanol molecule and O₂. Density functional theory calculations confirm that the electron transfer over the oxygen vacancies reduces both the methanol adsorption energy and activation barriers for methanol oxidation, which is proposed to significantly enhance the dissociation of the CH bond in the methanol decomposition reaction. This investigation serves as a solid foundation for characterizing and understanding single-atom catalysts for heterogeneous oxidation reactions.