Mg and its related solid base catalysts have always been thought of with weak or medium basicity. Herein, we present the synthesis of Mg single atom catalyst (Mg₁/NPC) with strong basicity by tuning its coordination environment, which shows unusual activity in strong-base-catalyzed transesterification reaction. Mg₁/NPC were obtained through impregnation-pyrolysis method, results manifest Mg single atoms are embedded in nitrogen doped carbon in penta-coordination (Mg-C₃N₂) which endows Mg single atoms with strong basicity and is in contrast to traditional alkaline-earth metal oxides. The novel Mg₁/NPC exhibits excellent activity (40.2%) and stability in transesterification of methanol and ethylene carbonate to produce dimethyl carbonate (DMC), outperforming all state-of-the-art Mg-based solid base catalysts thus far reported as well as Ca, Na, and K-based catalysts with superbasicity (2.5%–39.2%). This work might pave the way for the advancement of novel solid base catalysts with extraordinary sources of basicity for multifarious applications.

中文翻译：

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原子分散的镁，具有不寻常的酯交换反应催化活性


Mg 及其相关的固体碱催化剂一直被认为是弱碱度或中碱度的。在此，我们提出了通过调节其配位环境合成具有强碱度的 Mg 单原子催化剂 （Mg₁/NPC），这在强碱催化的酯交换反应中显示出不寻常的活性。通过浸渍-热解法获得 Mg₁/NPC，结果表明 Mg 单原子以五配位 （Mg-C₃N₂） 嵌入氮掺杂碳中，赋予 Mg 单原子强碱性，与传统的碱土金属氧化物形成鲜明对比。新型 Mg₁/NPC 在甲醇和碳酸乙烯酯酯交换反应中表现出优异的活性 （40.2%） 和稳定性，以生产碳酸二甲酯 （DMC），优于迄今为止报道的所有最先进的 Mg 基固体碱催化剂以及具有超碱度的 Ca、Na 和 K 基催化剂 （2.5%–39.2%）。这项工作可能为新型固体碱催化剂的发展铺平道路，这些催化剂具有非凡的碱度来源，适用于多种应用。