Nature | 2021
A stable low-temperature H2-production catalyst by crowding Pt on α-MoC
Abstract
The water–gas\xa0shift (WGS) reaction is an industrially important source of pure hydrogen (H 2 ) at the expense of carbon monoxide and water 1 , 2 . This reaction is of interest for fuel-cell applications, but requires WGS catalysts that are durable and highly active at low temperatures 3 . Here we demonstrate that the structure (Pt 1 –Pt n )/α-MoC, where isolated platinum atoms (Pt 1 ) and subnanometre platinum clusters (Pt n ) are stabilized on α-molybdenum carbide (α-MoC), catalyses the WGS reaction even at 313\xa0kelvin, with a hydrogen-production pathway involving\xa0direct carbon monoxide dissociation identified. We find that it is critical to crowd the α-MoC surface with Pt 1 and Pt n species, which prevents oxidation of the support that would cause catalyst deactivation, as seen with gold/α-MoC (ref. 4 ), and gives our system high stability and a high metal-normalized turnover number of 4,300,000 moles of hydrogen per mole of platinum.\xa0We anticipate that\xa0the strategy demonstrated here will be pivotal for\xa0the design of highly active and stable catalysts for effective activation of important molecules such as\xa0water and carbon monoxide for energy production. A stable, low-temperature water–gas shift catalyst is achieved by crowding platinum atoms and clusters on α-molybdenum carbide; the crowding protects the support from oxidation that would cause catalyst deactivation.