Efficient direct formic acid electrocatalysis enabled by rare earth-doped platinum-tellurium heterostructures

Xin Lin, Shize Geng, Xianglong Du, Feiteng Wang, Xu Zhang, Fang Xiao, Zhengyi Xiao, Yucheng Wang, Jun Cheng, Zhifeng Zheng, Xiaoqing Huang and Lingzheng Bu ()
Additional contact information
Xin Lin: Xiamen University
Shize Geng: Xiamen University
Xianglong Du: Xiamen University
Feiteng Wang: Xiamen University
Xu Zhang: Xiamen University
Fang Xiao: Xiamen University
Zhengyi Xiao: Xiamen University
Yucheng Wang: Xiamen University
Jun Cheng: Xiamen University
Zhifeng Zheng: Xiamen University
Xiaoqing Huang: Xiamen University
Lingzheng Bu: Xiamen University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract The lack of high-efficiency platinum (Pt)-based nanomaterials remains a formidable and exigent challenge in achieving high formic acid oxidation reaction (FAOR) and membrane electrode assembly (MEA) catalysis for direct formic acid fuel cell (DFAFC) technology. Herein, we report 16 Pt-based heterophase nanotrepang with rare earth (RE)-doped face-centered cubic Pt (fcc-Pt) and trigonal Pt-tellurium (t-PtTe2) configurations ((RE-Pt)-PtTe2 HPNT). Yttrium (Y) is identified as the optimal dopant, existing as single sites and clusters on the surface. The (Y-Pt)-PtTe2 HPNT/C demonstrates the superior mass and specific activities of 6.4 A mgPt−1 and 5.4 mA cm-2, outperforming commercial Pt/C by factors of 49.2 and 25.7, respectively. Additionally, it achieves a normalized MEA power density of 485.9 W gPt−1, tripling that of Pt/C. Density functional theory calculations further reveal that Y doping enhances HCOO* intermediate adsorption and suppresses CO intermediate formation, thereby promoting FAOR kinetics. This work highlights the role of RE metals in heterostructure regulation of Pt-based anodic nanomaterials for achieving the efficient direct formic acid electrocatalysis.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-55612-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-55612-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-55612-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().