Selective electrocatalysis imparted by metal–insulator transition for durability enhancement of automotive fuel cells

ABSTRACT Repetitive start-up and shut-down events in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells for automotive applications lead to serious corrosion of the cathode due to an instantaneous

potential jump that results from unintended air leakage into the anodic flow field followed by a parasitic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on the anode. Here we report a solution to the

cathode corrosion issue during the start-up/shut-down events whereby intelligent catalyst design is used to selectively promote the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) while concomitantly

suppressing the ORR on the anode. Platinum thin layers supported on hydrogen tungsten bronze (Pt/H_x_WO3) suppressed the ORR by converting themselves into an insulator following exposure to

oxygen, while selectively promoting the HOR by regaining metallic conductivity following subsequent exposure to hydrogen. The HOR-selective electrocatalysis imparted by a metal–insulator

transition in Pt/H_x_WO3 demonstrated a remarkably enhanced durability of membrane electrode assemblies compared to those with commercial Pt/C catalysts. Access through your institution Buy

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CLUSTERS STABILIZE SUB-2 NM PT NANOPARTICLES FOR HIGHLY DURABLE FUEL CELLS Article 01 July 2024 CHALLENGES IN APPLYING HIGHLY ACTIVE PT-BASED NANOSTRUCTURED CATALYSTS FOR OXYGEN REDUCTION

REACTIONS TO FUEL CELL VEHICLES Article 21 January 2021 REVEALING IN-PLANE MOVEMENT OF PLATINUM IN POLYMER ELECTROLYTE FUEL CELLS AFTER HEAVY-DUTY VEHICLE LIFETIME Article 27 July 2023 DATA

AVAILABILITY The data that support the plots in this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. CHANGE HISTORY * _ 17 FEBRUARY

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was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea grants (nos. 2019M3D1A1079306, 2019M3E6A1064521). V.S. and N.M.M. were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technologies Office. AUTHOR INFORMATION Author notes * These author contributed equally: Sang-Mun Jung, Su-Won Yun, Jun-Hyuk

Kim. AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea Sang-Mun Jung, Sang-Hoon You, 

Jinheon Park, Junwoo Son & Yong-Tae Kim * Department of Energy System, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea Su-Won Yun & Jun-Hyuk Kim * Department of Chemical

Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea Seonggyu Lee, Yousung Jung & Jinwoo Lee * Department of Physics, Chung-Ang University, Seoul,

Republic of Korea Seo Hyoung Chang * Department of Physics Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea Seung Chul Chae * Department of Chemistry, Ulsan National Institute

of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Republic of Korea Sang Hoon Joo * Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Drexel University, Drexel, PA, USA Joshua Snyder * Materials

Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA Vojislav Stamenkovic & Nenad M. Markovic Authors * Sang-Mun Jung View author publications You can also search for this

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search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS Y.-T.K. conceived and designed the experiments. S.-M.J., S.-W.Y., J.-H.K., S.-H.Y, J.P., S.L., S.H.C. and S.C.C. performed the

experiments. Y.-T.K., S.H.J., J.L., Y.J., J. Son, V.S. and N.M.M. analysed the data. Y.-T.K., J. Snyder and N.M.M. co-wrote the paper. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Yong-Tae Kim.

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permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Jung, SM., Yun, SW., Kim, JH. _et al._ Selective electrocatalysis imparted by metal–insulator transition for durability enhancement of

automotive fuel cells. _Nat Catal_ 3, 639–648 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-020-0475-4 Download citation * Received: 26 August 2019 * Accepted: 26 May 2020 * Published: 29 June 2020

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