Boosting the Performance of Iridium Single Atom Catalyst in a Porous Organic Polymer for Glycerol Conversion to Lactic Acid

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) inherit the merit of both homogeneous and heterogeneous systems with atomically dispersed mononuclear metal centers on the solid supports. Herein, we developed an Ir-SAC catalyst via the polymerization of an active homogeneous 2-picolinylhydrazone ligand-based iridium (Ir) metal complex. Such catalysts provide great stabilization against migration and agglomeration due to the strong covalent C-C bond linkage of active complexes and the polymer matrix. This Ir-SAC catalyst shows excellent selectivity towards glycerol to lactic acid conversion with a remarkable recyclability to offer an unprecedentedly high TON of over 104 million under optimized conditions.