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Proton exchange membrane fuel cells have been regarded as the most promising candidate for fuel cell vehicles and tools. Their broader adaption, however, has been impeded by cost and lifetime. By integrating a thin layer of tungsten oxide within the anode, which serves as a rapid-response hydrogen reservoir, oxygen scavenger, sensor for power demand, and regulator for hydrogen-disassociation reaction, we herein report proton exchange membrane fuel cells with significantly enhanced power performance for transient operation and low humidified conditions, as well as improved durability against adverse operating conditions. Meanwhile, the enhanced power performance minimizes the use of auxiliary energy-storage systems and reduces costs. Scale fabrication of such devices can be readily achieved based on the current fabrication techniques with negligible extra expense. This work provides proton exchange membrane fuel cells with enhanced power performance, improved durability, prolonged lifetime, and reduced cost for automotive and other applications.

The application of graphene for electrochemical energy storage has received tremendous attention; however, challenges remain in synthesis and other aspects. Here we report the synthesis of high-quality, nitrogen-doped, mesoporous graphene particles through chemical vapor deposition with magnesium-oxide particles as the catalyst and template. Such particles possess excellent structural and electrochemical stability, electronic and ionic conductivity, enabling their use as high-performance anodes with high reversible capacity, outstanding rate performance (e.g., 1,138 mA h g-1 at 0.2 C or 440 mA h g-1 at 60 C with a mass loading of 1 mg cm-2), and excellent cycling stability (e.g., >99% capacity retention for 500 cycles at 2 C with a mass loading of 1 mg cm-2). Interestingly, thick electrodes could be fabricated with high areal capacity and current density (e.g., 6.1 mA h cm-2 at 0.9 mA cm-2), providing an intriguing class of materials for lithium-ion batteries with high energy and power performance.

A low-cost and scalable method has been developed to synthesize Fe-decorated N-rich carbon electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) based on pyrolysis of metal carbonyls containing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Such a method simultaneously optimizes the Fe-related active sites and the porous structure of the catalysts. Accordingly, the best-performing Fe-NC-900-M catalyst shows excellent ORR activity with a half-wave potential of 0.91 V vs. RHE, exceeding that of the 40% Pt/C catalyst in alkaline media. Furthermore, the zinc-air batteries constructed with Fe-NC-900-M as the cathode catalyst exhibit high open-circuit voltage (1.5 V) and peak power density (271 mW cm-2), and outperform most zinc-air batteries with noble-metal free ORR catalysts.

Alloying is regarded as one of the most promising strategies for boosting performance of catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to the adjustable electronic structure and intermediate adsorption. However, there is no theory (including d‐band center theory) can accurately guide the preparation and design of alloy catalysts, and thus resulting all the reported alloy catalysts are obtained by time‐consuming and laborious experimental exploration. Herein, we proposed a mean d‐band center (εas) as a new accurate descriptor for alloy activity prediction. Theoretical simulation and experiment results revealed that this descriptor exhibits a strong scaling relation with H adsorption energy. Besides, the obtained Cu–Ag alloy displays an optimal overpotential of 223 mV at 10 mA/cm2 in 0.5 mol/L H2SO4, which is more than 300 mV lower than those of pristine Cu (530 mV) and Ag (569 mV) powder. Our work provides a new idea toward designing highly efficient HER catalysts and broadens the applicability of d‐band theory to activity prediction of alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of xPθ-Al2O3 supports modified with different amounts of phosphorus element were prepared and taken as supports of palladium catalysts for methane catalytic combustion. The impacts of phosphorus additives on the hydrophobicity of Pd/xPθ-Al2O3 and its performance of methane catalytic combustion in the absence of and presence of 8% water were systematically studied. It was found that the hydrophobicity of xPθ-Al2O3 changed with the increase of phosphorus content, which had a significant effect on the activity of methane catalytic combustion. The incorporation of phosphorus replaced the hydroxyl groups on the surface of Al2O3 in the form of phosphates, thus changing the density of hydroxyl groups of Al2O3 support. TGA, NH3-TPD, IR, and XPS were employed to illustrate the process of phosphate replacement. xPθ-Al2O3 with less than 1 wt.% phosphorus content had better hydrophobicity than the unmodified θ-Al2O3 and Pd/xPθ-Al2O3, therefore had better performance for methane catalytic combustion, which was attributed to the substitution of hydroxyl groups on the surface of θ-Al2O3 by PO43− and HPO42−. However, when the phosphorus content of Al2O3 was higher than 1 wt.%, the substitution of H2PO4− began to dominate, which would lead to poorer hydrophobicity and catalytic performance. This work will guide the design of methane catalytic combustion catalysts resistant to water inhibition problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a core–shell structure (Ag@Co3O4) was constructed to modify the valence state of cobalt cations precisely by continuously adjusting the shell thickness. There exists a volcano relationship between the valence state of Co sites and OER activity, and the lowest overpotential (212 mV@10 mA cm−2) has been obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 into value-added chemicals provides a facile solution to energy and environmental crisis. Non-precious metals (Zn, Cd, Sn etc.) were identified as promising catalysts for the reduction of CO2. However, their electron-rich peculiarity causes weak adsorption of reaction intermediates and poor performance for CO2 reduction. Here we report that a conceptually new electrocatalyst, Zn nanosheets coated with a porous ZnS subnanometer layer, can achieve excellent catalytic performance which is comparable with that of noble metallic catalysts. Experimental and theoretical investigations reveal that the ZnS subnanometer layer plays a similar role to S dopants, modifies the adsorption of Zn catalysts appropriately, and eventually achieves high catalytic activity. Meanwhile, different from S doping, the ZnS subnanometer layer is chemically inert during the reduction of CO2, thus providing long-term durability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]