In key industrial catalytic fields such as energy conversion and pollution control, the industrial deployment of catalysts requires not only high activity and stability but also the ability to be manufactured in an automated and scalable manner. Single-atom catalysts (SACs), with nearly 100% metal atom utilization and highly tunable coordination environments, are widely regarded as an important class of materials for advancing green chemistry and supporting the transition to a low-carbon industry. However, SACs have long faced significant challenges in stable anchoring, automated synthesis, and large-scale production.
To address these challenges, the research group led by Professor Ruqiang Zou at the School of Materials Science and Engineering and the School of Advanced Materials， Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School has been dedicated to the precise design, scalable preparation, and industrial catalytic application of single-atom catalysts. In earlier work, the team proposed the concept of topological single-atom catalyst design and achieved kilogram-scale synthesis (Nat. Commun. 2025, 16, 574).
Building on this foundation, on February 27, 2026, Professor Zou’s team and collaborators published a research article in Nature Synthesis entitled “Click-locking strategy enables automated synthesis of single-atom catalysts with industrial compatibility.” The study introduces a robotics-driven Click-locking strategy, enabling major advances in the precise design, automated synthesis, and scalable production of single-atom catalysts.
This strategy introduces clicking auxiliaries” that create electron-rich anchoring sites in situ on the support surface, enabling precise stabilization of isolated metal atoms while synergistically tuning their electronic structures. Atomic-resolution imaging and synchrotron spectroscopy reveal that metal species can remain atomically dispersed even under high temperatures and practical reaction conditions. Mechanistically, this overcomes the long-standing challenge of weak anchoring and aggregation in conventional single-atom catalysts.
Based on this strategy, the research team independently designed and constructed a high-throughput platform. This platform enables modular, standardized, and batch preparation of both powder-based and electrode-supported catalysts. With this automated system, the team rapidly built a large-scale library of click-engineered single-atom catalysts and conducted systematic high-throughput screening in electrocatalytic, photocatalytic, and thermocatalytic reactions.
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of a robot-driven synthesis route for thermocatalytic single-atom catalysts.
Importantly, the strategy has also been successfully validated at scale. The research team achieved kilogram-scale production of single-atom catalysts in a 100 L reactors and demonstrated excellent catalytic activity, selectivity, and long-term stability in several industrial thermocatalytic reactions, including industrial flue-gas NOx reduction,CO oxidation,CO2 hydrogenation to methanol, and hydrogenation of C4 fractions. These results highlight strong industrial compatibility and scalability potential.
Figure 2. Large-scale synthesis of catalysts and evaluation of industrial catalytic performance.
Paper link:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-026-01004-9
