Selective hydrogenolysis of biomass-derived glycerol to propanediol is an important reaction to produce high value-added chemicals but remains a big challenge. Herein we report a PtCu single atom alloy (SAA) catalyst with single Pt atom dispersed on Cu nanoclusters, which exhibits dramatically boosted catalytic performance (yield: 98.8%) towards glycerol hydrogenolysis to 1,2-propanediol. Remarkably, the turnover frequency reaches up to 2.6 × 10³ mol_glycerol·mol_PtCu–SAA⁻¹·h⁻¹, which is to our knowledge the largest value among reported heterogeneous metal catalysts. Both in situ experimental studies and theoretical calculations verify interface sites of PtCu–SAA serve as intrinsic active sites, in which the single Pt atom facilitates the breakage of central C–H bond whilst the terminal C–O bond undergoes dissociation adsorption on adjacent Cu atom. This interfacial synergistic catalysis based on PtCu–SAA changes the reaction pathway with a decreased activation energy, which can be extended to other noble metal alloy systems.

The dry reforming of methane provides an attractive route to convert greenhouse gases (CH₄ and CO₂) into valuable syngas, so as to resolve the carbon cycle and environmental issues. However, the development of high-performance catalysts remains a huge challenge. Herein, we report a 0.6% Ir/CeO_2−x catalyst with a metal-support interface structure which exhibits high CH₄ (~72%) and CO₂ (~82%) conversion and a CH₄ reaction rate of ~973 μmol_CH4 g_cat⁻¹ s⁻¹ which is stable over 100 h at 700 °C. The performance of the catalyst is close to the state-of-the-art in this area of research. A combination of in situ spectroscopic characterization and theoretical calculations highlight the importance of the interfacial structure as an intrinsic active center to facilitate the CH₄ dissociation (the rate-determining step) and the CH₂* oxidation to CH₂O* without coke formation, which accounts for the long-term stability. The catalyst in this work has a potential application prospect in the field of high-value utilization of carbon resources.

NiFe–Cl layered double hydroxide (LDH) is proposed as a high-capacity and long lifetime cathode material for chloride ion batteries (CIBs), which delivers a maximum capacity of 350.6 mA h g ⁻¹ and a long lifetime of 800 cycles.