Recently, the research team led by Prof. Tao Liu from the Hydrogen Science Center at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in collaboration with Prof. Li Zhong from Southeast University, Prof. Guangfeng Wei from Tongji University, and Prof. Tong Li from Ruhr University Bochum, has made significant progress in the design of high-efficiency fuel cell catalysts. The work entitled “Nonmetal-hybridized platinum-based compositionally complex alloys for efficient oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells,” has been published online in Nature Catalysis. Prof. Tao Liu and Prof. Li Zhong are the co-corresponding authors. This study establishes a mild and generic solvothermal synthesis strategy to develop a series of novel and highly efficient nonmetal-hybridized platinum-based complex alloy catalysts. The work overcomes the long-standing trade-off between catalytic activity and stability in the electrocatalyst crucial for fuel cells, deepens the understanding of their synthetic mechanisms and structure–activity relationships, and provides new design principles for electrocatalysts with complex compositions, refined structures, and superior performance.

The sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is a major rate-limiting step in fuel cells and other clean energy technologies, limiting their efficiency, durability, and cost-effectiveness. Platinum-based alloys are currently the mainstream ORR catalysts; however, they generally suffer from the intrinsic challenge of activity-stability trade-off. Introducing light nonmetal elements such as fluorine, nitrogen, carbon, and boron into alloy lattices via interstitial doping has been recognized as an effective strategy to address this issue. These interstitial nonmetal atoms can suppress metal atom diffusion and dissolution, thereby enhancing structural stability; they can also tune the electronic structure of active sites through metal–nonmetal orbital hybridization, leading to improved catalytic activity.

However, existing studies have largely been limited to single nonmetal doping and simple binary platinum-based alloys. Compositionally complex alloys, including high-entropy alloys, offer abundant active sites and enhanced structural stability derived from high configurational entropy, making them promising candidates for high-performance catalysts. Extending interstitial doping strategies to systems with multiple nonmetals and multiple metals may therefore enable unprecedented enhancements in ORR performance. Nevertheless, two major challenges remain for their synthesis: (1) due to the highly different properties of nonmetal elements, conventional doping methods for various nonmetals are distinct and demanding, often requiring harsh conditions such as plasma etching or high-temperature, high-pressure ammonia annealing; and (2) the synthesis of single-phase complex alloys, especially high-entropy alloys with near-equimolar compositions, typically relies on energy-intensive, non-equilibrium processes such as rapid heating and quenching. Mild synthetic method for them remains rare.

To address these challenges, the research team developed a facile solvothermal synthesis strategy under mild conditions that enables efficient integration of multiple nonmetals and metals through three key synergistic mechanisms. First, platinum clusters form preferentially during the solvothermal process and catalyze the synchronous reduction of other transition metal ions. Second, transition metal ions such as Ni²⁺ and Co²⁺ facilitate the activation and dissociation of nonmetal precursors through strong coordination interactions. Third, nonmetal precursors rich in active functional groups are rationally selected, followed by post-annealing to optimize the structure. This approach successfully yields nonmetal-hybridized platinum-based complex alloys.

Fig.1 Electrocatalyst design and modulation

This work achieves several breakthroughs:

(1) Synthesis methodology:
A generic solvothermal synthesis approach is developed to enable the simultaneous incorporation of multiple nonmetal elements (e.g., F, N, B) into single-phase compositionally complex alloys. The metallic components can be extended to a wide range of elements, including Pt, Cu, Ni, Co, Fe, Cr, Mo, W, and Pd, with tunable compositions (5–50 atom%). This method allows controlled synthesis of ternary to septenary alloys, including high-entropy alloys, providing a versatile platform for designing multicomponent catalysts. Importantly, the process operates under mild conditions (160 °C solvothermal reaction followed by 400 °C annealing), without the need for high pressure, extreme temperatures, or plasma treatments, making it simple and scalable.

Fig.2 Characterization of catalysts and synthetic mechanism

(2) Catalytic and membrane electrode performance:
The optimized catalysts (e.g., PtCuNiCoN, PtCuNiCoFN, PtCuNiCoFNB) exhibit outstanding catalytic performance. In rotating disk electrode tests, they achieve a mass activity of up to 7.8 A mgPt⁻¹ and a specific activity of 12.1 mA cm⁻², ranking among the best reported values. After 30,000 durability cycles, they retain 80–90% of their activity, significantly outperforming commercial Pt/C catalysts and breaking the traditional activity–stability trade-off. Membrane electrode assembly (MEA) tests further demonstrate excellent practical applicability at low platinum loading. Under H₂–air conditions with a total Pt loading of only 0.1 mgPt cm⁻², the MEA delivers a peak power density of 1.06 W cm⁻² and a mass-specific power of 10.6 kW g⁻¹Pt. During 100 hours of continuous operation at high current density, the degradation rate is as low as 0.0428% per hour. These metrics are among the state-of-the-art and provide a solid foundation for the commercialization of low-cost, long-lifetime fuel cells.

Fig. 3 Electrochemical performance at material and device levels

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key R&D Program of China, and the National High-Level Young Talent Program. Full paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-026-01544-5