Densely populated single‐atom catalysts for boosting hydrogen generation from formic acid

Abstract The single‐atom M‐N‐C (M typically being Co or Fe) is a prominent material with exceptional reactivity in areas of catalysis for sustainable energy. However, the formation of metal nanoparticles in M‐N‐C materials is coupled with high‐temperature calcination conditions, limiting the density of M‐N_x active sites and thus restricting the catalytic performance of such catalysts. Herein, we describe an effective decoupling strategy to construct high‐density M‐N_x active sites by generating polyfurfuryl alcohol in the MOF precursor, effectively preventing the formation of metal nanoparticles even with up to 6.377% cobalt loading. This catalyst showed a high H₂ production rate of 778 mL g_cat⁻¹ h⁻¹ when used in the dehydrogenation reaction of formic acid. In addition to the high density of the active site, a curved carbon surface in the structure is also thought to be the reason for the high performance of the catalyst.