Quantum confinement-induced anti-electrooxidation of metallic nickel electrocatalysts for hydrogen oxidation

The anion-exchange-membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) is an attractive and cost-effective energy-conversion technology because it can use Earth-abundant and low-cost non-precious metal catalysts. However, non-precious metals used in AEMFCs to catalyse the hydrogen oxidation reaction are prone to self-oxidation, resulting in irreversible failure. Here we show a quantum well-like catalytic structure (QWCS), constructed by atomically confining Ni nanoparticles within a carbon-doped-MoOx/MoOx heterojunction (C-MoOx/MoOx) that can selectively transfer external electrons from the hydrogen oxidation reaction while remaining itself metallic. Electrons of Ni nanoparticles gain a barrier of 1.11 eV provided by the QWCS leading to Ni stability up to 1.2 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (VRHE) whereas electrons released from the hydrogen oxidation reaction easily cross the barrier by a gating operation of QWCS upon hydrogen adsorption. The QWCS-catalysed AEMFC achieved a high-power density of 486 mW mgNi−1 and withstood hydrogen starvation operations during shutdown–start cycles, whereas a counterpart AEMFC without QWCS failed in a single cycle. Non-precious metals used at the anode of anion-exchange-membrane fuel cells to catalyse hydrogen oxidation are prone to self-oxidation. Here Zhou and colleagues report that a quantum well-like catalytic structure containing Ni nanoparticles within a C-doped MoOx/MoOx heterojunction can mitigate such degradation by a gating operation.