Citation: Xu Zhang, Bin Cai, Tianyu Han, Ziyun Li, Ying Xie, Lei Wang. Vanadium nitride-assisted electronic engineering of platinum for enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen oxidation and CO tolerance[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(5): 111860. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.111860 shu

Vanadium nitride-assisted electronic engineering of platinum for enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen oxidation and CO tolerance

Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China

xieying@hlju.edu.cn

wanglei0525@hlju.edu.cn

Received Date: 5 February 2025
Revised Date: 15 September 2025
Accepted Date: 17 September 2025
Available Online: 18 September 2025

Figures(5)

The high sensitivity of platinum (Pt)-based catalysts to CO during the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) at the anode is one of the key issues for the long-term stable development of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Modulating the electronic structure of Pt is considered an effective approach to enhancing HOR activity and improving CO tolerance. Herein, we utilized the synergistic effect between the transition metal interstitial compounds (TMICs) of VN and Pt to develop a Pt-VN heterojunction-loaded carbon nanofiber catalyst (Pt-VN/NCNF) for CO tolerance in HOR. The introduction of VN causes electronic orbitals rearrangement of Pt, thereby optimizing the adsorption of H on the Pt surface. Meanwhile, the overlap of the d-band of the electron-deficient Pt with the 1π and 5σ bonding orbitals of CO was significantly reduced, which suppresses the strong CO adsorption on Pt surfaces and leave more active sites for H₂ adsorption and oxidation. As a result, Pt-VN/NCNF exhibits a mass activity of 1.26 mA/µg_Pt, 41 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C. Encouragingly, Pt-VN/NCNF maintains 96.7% of its original activity even in the presence of 1000 ppm CO. As anticipated, Pt-VN/NCNF-based PEMFCs demonstrate superior CO tolerance to Pt/C in H₂/CO mixtures with CO concentrations ranging from 10 ppm to 1000 ppm.
- Modulation electron structure,
- Pt-VN heterojunction,
- Hydrogen oxidation reaction,
- Anti-CO poisoning,
- Proton exchange membrane fuel cells
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