Hydrogen‑powered cars, power stations, and portable chargers all rely on fuel cells. At the heart of each fuel cell is a catalyst that speeds up the reaction between hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and water. These catalysts are typically made of platinum — which costs nearly as much as gold. Researchers from Southern Federal University, together with colleagues from Skoltech (part of the VEB.RF Group), the Institute of Catalysis of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Bauman Moscow State Technical University, have found a way to make this key component both cheaper and better. They developed a catalyst from a five‑metal alloy that retains its activity even after 10,000 operating cycles.
Fuel cell catalysts are made from platinum because it is the most efficient metal for the job — but also the most expensive. To bring down the cost, platinum is alloyed with other, more affordable metals. In this study, the researchers used a combination of five elements: platinum, palladium, copper, nickel, and cobalt. The chemists at Southern Federal University devised a straightforward and scalable method to synthesize small five‑component metallic nanoparticles evenly distributed on a carbon support.
In practice, however, such materials often come out uneven: some metals remain in an oxidized state, and atoms are distributed non‑uniformly. To fix this, the material is heat‑treated. For the first time, the scientists observed in real time what happens to the alloy nanoparticles as they are heated from 300 to 600°C. At different temperatures, different effects occur, altering the microstructure and electrochemical performance of the catalyst. Above 400°C, for instance, the alloy begins to restructure and its surface becomes enriched with platinum — and since platinum is what drives the reaction, this enrichment boosts the catalyst's effectiveness.
Skoltech researchers carried out computer simulations that confirmed that platinum does indeed migrate to the nanoparticle surface: at 600°C, about 75% of all platinum atoms end up in the outermost layer. Palladium, by contrast, moves deeper into the particle. As a result, the heat‑treated catalyst performs better, even though its active surface area shrinks slightly due to particle growth.
These findings allowed the team to produce a new material with outstanding electrochemical properties. The catalyst treated at 350°C proved exceptionally stable: after 10,000 cycles, its activity dropped by just 22%, compared with a 40% loss for a commercial platinum catalyst. What is more, after extended testing, the new catalyst turned out to be four times more active than the commercial benchmark.
“The stability of catalysts is a crucial factor in developing high‑performance low‑temperature fuel cells,” said Sergey Belenov, a senior research scientist at the Faculty of Chemistry of Southern Federal University. “We have shown that creating such complex systems is not only of fundamental scientific interest but also holds promise for commercial applications thanks to their high stability — for example, in cars and power generation stations.”
The new catalyst could be used in fuel cells for vehicles, stationary power plants, and portable devices.
“Combining experiments with computer simulations helped us understand exactly how atoms of different metals redistribute within nanoparticles when heated,” commented Senior Research Scientist Ilya Chepkasov from the Materials Center, a co‑author of the study. “We showed that this process can be controlled to produce materials with tailored properties. This is an important step toward more affordable and longer‑lasting fuel cells.”
The work is published in the Journal of Alloys and Compounds and was supported by Russian Science Foundation grant No. 25‑79‑20045.
