Molybdenum doping drives high activity

Abstract

Electrochemistry Platinum (Pt) is an effective catalyst of the oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells but is scarce. One approach to extend Pt availability is to alloy it with more abundant metals such as nickel (Ni). Although these catalysts can be highly active, they are often not durable because of Ni loss. Huang et al. show that doping the surface of octahedral Pt3Ni nanocrystals with molybdenum not only leads to high activity (∼80 times that of a commercial catalyst) but enhances their stability. Science , this issue p. [1230][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaa8765