Recent Advancements of Porphyrin-Like Single-Atom Catalysts: Synthesis and Applications

Porphyrin, an active center in many biological enzymes, is an important environment-friendly biomimetic catalyst, which shows high catalytic efficiency and selectivity. However, porphyrin has the disadvantages of decomposition, self-polymerization and deactivation in catalysis, and unrecyclability in homogeneous catalysis, which limit its wide application in catalysis. With the development of single-atom catalysis, it is found that porphyrin-like single-atom catalysts (SACs) mimic the porphyrin molecules and biological enzymes in many catalytic systems due to their high similarity to porphyrin. In contrast, porphyrin-like single-atom heterogeneous catalysts possess good recyclability compared with small-molecule porphyrin homogeneous catalysts. Therefore, as an important family member of SACs, porphyrin-like SACs are widely studied in various reactions. Herein, the synthesis methods for porphyrin-like SACs and their applications in many important reactions, including electrochemical reactions and organic synthesis reactions, are summarized. Finally, the challenges and prospects of porphyrin-like SACs in the further applications are provided.