Bimetallic Single-Atom Catalysts for Water Splitting

Green hydrogen from water splitting has emerged as a critical energy vector with the potential to spearhead the global transition to a fossil fuel-independent society. The field of catalysis has been revolutionized by single-atom catalysts(SACs), which exhibit unique and intricate interactions between atomically dispersed metal atoms and their supports. Recently, bimetallic SACs(bim SACs) have garnered significant attention for leveraging the synergistic functions of two metal ions coordinated on appropriately designed supports. Bim SACs offer an avenue for rich metal–metal and metal–support cooperativity, potentially addressing current limitations of SACs in effectively furnishing transformations which involve synchronous proton–electron exchanges, substrate activation with reversible redox cycles, simultaneous multi-electron transfer, regulation of spin states, tuning of electronic properties, and cyclic transition states with low activation energies. This review aims to encapsulate the growing advancements in bim SACs, with an emphasis on their pivotal role in hydrogen generation via water splitting. We subsequently delve into advanced experimental methodologies for the elaborate characterization of SACs, elucidate their electronic properties, and discuss their local coordination environment. Overall, we present comprehensive discussion on the deployment of bim SACs in both hydrogen evolution reaction and oxygen evolution reaction, the two half-reactions of the water electrolysis process.