Sustainable and cost-efficient hydrogen production using platinum clusters at minimal loading
Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis stands as a promising technology for sustainable hydrogen production, although its viability hinges on minimizing platinum (Pt) usage without sacrificing catalytic efficiency. Central to this challenge is enhancing the intrinsic activity of Pt while ensuring the stability of the catalyst. We herein present a Mo<sub>2</sub>TiC<sub>2</sub> MXene-supported Pt nanocluster catalyst (Mo<sub>2</sub>TiC<sub>2</sub>-Pt<sub>NC</sub>) that requires a minimal Pt content (36 μg cm<sup>-2</sup>) to function, yet remains highly active and stable. Operando spectroscopy and theoretical simulation provide evidence for anomalous charge transfer from the MXene substrate to Pt<sub>NC</sub>, thus generating highly efficient electron-rich Pt sites for robust hydrogen evolution. When incorporated into a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer, the catalyst affords more than 8700 h at 200 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> under ambient temperature with a decay rate of just 2.2 μV h<sup>-1</sup>. All the performance metrics of the present Mo<sub>2</sub>TiC<sub>2</sub>-Pt<sub>NC</sub> catalysts are on par with or even surpass those of current hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts under identical operation conditions, thereby challenging the monopoly of high-loading Pt/C-20% in the current electrolyzer design.
Authors
- Runhao Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2985-2015)
- Chuan Xia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4526-159X)
- Yizhou Dai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3662-3520)
- Xin Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5247-2937)
- Hongliang Zeng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9426-8133)
- Yizhen Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8499-2013)
- Donghao Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4672-9986)
- Tingting Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2782-2800)
- Qiu Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2408-198X)
- Xu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7577-4957)
- Jialin Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5521-7763)
- Yinfang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5408-2347)
- Yuan Ji
- Zheng Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1160-2504)
- Chunxiao Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6217-4482)
- Zhaoyang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2743-6811)
- Chengbo Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7704-8035)
- Xiaoxia Xiong
- Qiu Zhong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6967-9291)
- Jiawei Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9069-7002)
- Zhongyue Zhang
Institutions
- University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Fudan University (CN)
- Huzhou Normal University (CN)
- Hefei University (CN)
- Hefei National Center for Physical Sciences at Nanoscale (CN)
- University of California, Davis (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-05-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59450-6
- Citations
- 41
- Primary Topic
- Catalytic Processes in Materials Science
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 21.23
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- Department of Science and Technology of Sichuan Province
- Huzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau
- Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province
- National Natural Science Foundation of China-Yunnan Joint Fund
- National Key Research and Development Program of China