Simultaneous oxidative and reductive reactions in one system by atomic design

Single-atom catalysts often exhibit unexpected catalytic activity for many important chemical and biological reactions with respect to their bulk counterparts, and have been recognized as potential substitutes for natural enzymes. Here we report a biomimetic composite, yolk–shell Pd 1 @Fe 1 , that features two compatible single-atom systems with atomically dispersed Fe 1 sites in a N-doped carbon shell and Pd 1 sites in a yolk derived from a metal–organic framework. Directly utilizing the O 2 and H 2 sources generated on-site from the electrocatalytic overall water splitting, the as-synthesized yolk–shell Pd 1 @Fe 1 could simultaneously catalyse nitroaromatic hydrogenation and alkene epoxidation reactions and lead to a cascade synthesis of amino alcohols. Our findings provide a versatile strategy to integrate different single metal sites within one system to allow the continuous and easy synthesis of complex compounds for various challenging reactions.