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Source: China Chemical Industry News. Recently, researchers at the **Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry** at the Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have made new progress in the research of catalysts for producing dimethyl carbonate from coal. They have successfully developed Pd catalysts with atomic-level dispersion, which exhibit excellent catalytic performance. This research will accelerate the industrialization of catalytic technologies for coal-based dimethyl carbonate production. Atomically dispersed Pd catalysts exhibit excellent catalytic performance: a CO conversion rate of over 80%, a dimethyl carbonate selectivity of nearly 100%, and no degradation in performance after 100 hours of continuous operation. Based on the experimental results, the researchers used theoretical calculations to reveal the catalytic functional units responsible for the selective regulation of the products: atomically dispersed single Pd active centers facilitate the formation of dimethyl carbonate, whereas dual Pd active centers favor the formation of another product, dimethyl oxalate. They subsequently obtained a molecularly sieve-stabilized, atomically dispersed Pd catalyst through theoretical calculation optimization, rational design, and controllable synthesis; the catalyst had a structure consistent with that of the theoretically designed catalyst model. Dimethyl carbonate is regarded as a green chemical, and its demand is growing rapidly amid the fast development of the power battery and polycarbonate industries. The current mainstream ester exchange production technology in the industry suffers from issues such as high product costs and severe pollution during the production of the raw material propylene oxide. After more than 30 years of basic and applied research, the Fujian Institute of Material Structure of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed coal-based ethylene glycol production technology. Building on the coal-to-ethylene glycol technology, researchers at the institute have developed catalytic technology for producing dimethyl carbonate from coal through technological expansion. Compared with the transesterification method, the raw materials for coal-based dimethyl carbonate are merely methanol, CO, and O2, resulting in low production costs and a significant competitive advantage. However, due to the relatively low overall performance of catalysts in terms of activity, selectivity, and stability, catalytic technology for producing dimethyl carbonate from coal has not been able to be industrialized.