A molten-salt dispersion of lanthanides at the atomic scale

Nature Materials (2026)Cite this article Lanthanide (Ln) elements have distinctive electronic structures and chemical behaviours that can be used to tune electrocatalytic performance when they are introduced as isolated atomic modifiers. However, their broader use remains limited because their high reactivity and ultralow reduction potentials make it difficult to develop general synthesis strategies that can atomically disperse Ln atoms on diverse substrates. Here we develop a molten-nitrite method that yields Ln single-atom catalysts, permitting the atomic isolation of multiple lanthanides on various supports, including metals, metal oxides and carbon materials. Mechanistic insights obtained from systematic control experiments indicate that Ln single-atom catalyst formation in molten nitrites is dictated by three factors: the Lux–Flood basicity effect, mass-diffusion resistance and molten-salt shielding. As a demonstration, Dy1/Pt shows an overpotential of 20 mV at a current density of −10 mA cm−2 in 0.5-M H2SO4 for acidic hydrogen evolution, which is superior to commercial Pt/C catalysts. This work establishes a framework for synthesizing Ln single-atom catalysts and positions molten-nitrite systems as a versatile platform for electrocatalyst synthesis.This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any timeSubscribe to this journal Receive 12 print issues and online access $259.00 per yearonly $21.58 per issueBuy this articleUSD 39.95Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkoutAll data generated or analysed during this study are included in the article and its Supplementary Information, and are also available from the corresponding author upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.Li, C. et al. Rare earth-based nanomaterials in electrocatalysis. Coord. Chem. Rev. 489, 215204 (2023).Article CAS Google Scholar Lucas, J. et al. Rare earths: science, technology, production and use. MRS Bull. 40, 452–453 (2015).

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Diversity of platinum-sites at platinum/fullerene interface accelerates alkaline hydrogen evolution. Nat. Commun. 14, 1711 (2023).Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar Download referencesC.X. acknowledges the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2024YFB4105700), the Scientific Research Innovation Capability Support Project for Young Faculty (SRICSPYF-ZY2025052), the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (2025NSFJQ0017) and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (ZYGX2025TS001). T.Z. acknowledges NSFC (22278067 and 22322201). X.L. acknowledges NSFC (22475030) and the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (2024NSFSC1107). Q.J. acknowledges NSFC (22405035) and the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (2024NSFSC1104). We appreciate the Analysis and Testing Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, for their technical support, especially Y. Hu and J. Li with regard to XRD and HAADF-STEM, respectively. We thank beamline BL11B (31124.02.SSRF.BL11B) of the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility for providing the beamtime. We appreciate the discussion with C. Guo from SUPCON Technology for the theoretical computations in this work.School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, People’s Republic of ChinaHaoyuan Wang (王昊元), Chunxiao Liu (刘春晓), Yuan Ji (计远), Hongliang Zeng (曾洪亮), Xinyan Zhang (张昕岩), Qisheng Zeng (曾齐升), Jiawei Li (李嘉伟), Qinglong Gao (高秦龙), Xu Li (李旭), Tingting Zheng (郑婷婷), Qiu Jiang (江秋) & Chuan Xia (夏川)Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, People’s Republic of ChinaHaoyuan Wang (王昊元), Sunpei Hu (胡孙培), Xinyan Zhang (张昕岩), Yao Zhang (张尧) & Jie Zeng (曾杰)Search author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarSearch author on:PubMed Google ScholarThe project was conceptualized and supervised by C.X. H.W. conducted all the experiments with help from the other authors. H.W. carried out all the sample syntheses. H.W., H.Z. and Q.Z. performed the electrochemical tests. S.H. helped with the electron microscopy. H.W., J.L. and X.Z. performed the ex situ measurements. H.W. and Q.G. conducted the X-ray absorption fine structure measurements. C.L., X.L. and Y.Z. helped with the statistical analysis. C.L., X.Z., Q.Z. and J.L. provided useful discussion on this work. J.Z. helped with the design of the mechanism experiments. Y.J. designed the figures in the paper. H.W., C.L., T.Z., Q.J. and C.X. wrote and revised the paper.Correspondence to Chuan Xia (夏川).The authors declare no competing interests.Nature Materials thanks Wolfgang Schmidt, Deli Wang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Supplementary Figs. 1–69, Notes 1–13, Tables 1–4, additional methods and safety warning.Atomic coordinates of the optimized computational models used in this work.EXAFS data of Dy1/CuO, Dy1/Cu2O, Dy1/Cu and references plotted in Fig. 1h.Dy1/Pt XRD data plotted in Fig. 3b, Dy1/Rh XRD data plotted in Fig. 3d, Dy1/Ir XRD data plotted in Fig. 3f, EXAFS data of Dy1/Pt, Dy1/Rh, Dy1/Ir and references plotted in Fig. 3g.EXAFS data of Dy1/Y2O3, Dy1/ZnO, Dy1/Pd, Dy1/AlOx, Dy1/RuO2, Dy1/SnO2, Dy1/C, Lu1/Mn3O4 and Lu1/FeOx and references plotted in Fig. 4b.LSV polarization data plotted in Fig. 5a, ECSA-normalized LSV polarization data plotted in Fig. 5b, Tafel slopes plotted in Fig. 5c, stability test data plotted in Fig. 5d and proton exchange membrane chronopotentiometry stability test data plotted in Fig. 5f.Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.Reprints and permissionsWang, H., Liu, C., Ji, Y. et al. A molten-salt dispersion of lanthanides at the atomic scale. Nat. Mater. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02492-yDownload citationReceived: 14 December 2024Accepted: 13 January 2026Published: 19 February 2026Version of record: 19 February 2026DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-026-02492-yAnyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative