A bifunctional pincer-palladium molecular catalyst for hydrogen/oxygen fuel cells
The design of novel high-performance fuel cells is one of the fundamentals of modern green energy. The heterogenization of well-defined molecular complexes represents a powerful strategy to translate precise control over active-site geometry and electronic structure into practical energy conversion devices. Herein, we report a pincer palladium molecular complex, [(PNP)Pd(CH 3 CN)]BF 4 , that was successfully integrated into membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) and evaluated as a bifunctional electrocatalyst in operational H 2 /O 2 fuel cells. The complex catalyzes both the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and oxygen reduction reactions (ORR), exhibiting high performance as an anode catalyst with a maximum power density of 419 mW cm −2 . This high HOR activity is attributed to efficient heterolytic hydrogen splitting via metal-ligand cooperation enabled by the pincer architecture. These results open a new avenue towards the implementation of pincer palladium complexes as a promising new class of bifunctional molecular catalysts for fuel cells.
Authors
- Darya E. Votkina (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1454-233X)
- Oleg A. Filippov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7963-2806)
- Evgenii I. Gutsul (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2835-4674)
- Danis M. Kadirov
- P. Ya. Enders (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6651-5707)
- Il’yas F. Sakhapov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7440-1486)
- Igor A. Litvinov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4991-1908)
- Dmitry G. Yakhvarov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3906-8841)
- Artyom O. Kantyukov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2285-300X)
- Ekaterina M. Titova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7017-0409)
- Kirill V. Kholin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2551-5505)
- Marsil K. Kadirov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1625-1720)
- Radis R. Gainullin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0602-0470)
- Natalia V. Belkova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9346-8208)
- Zufar N. Gafurov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6615-8968)
- Oleg G. Sinyashin
- Pavel S. Postnikov
- Danil K. Kazantsev
- Artem V. Kozlov
Institutions
- Russian Academy of Sciences (RU)
- A. N. Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds (RU)
- Tomsk Polytechnic University (RU)
- Kazan Scientific Center (RU)
- A.E. Arbuzov Institute of Organic and Physical Chemistry (RU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
- Published
- 2026-09-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2026.157809
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00