Rare Earth Evoked Subsurface Oxygen Species in Platinum Alloy Catalysts Enable Durable Fuel Cells

Alleviating the degradation issue of Pt based alloy catalysts, thereby simultaneously achieving high mass activity and high durability in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), is highly challenging. Herein, we provide a new paradigm to address this issue via delaying the place exchange between adsorbed oxygen species and surface Pt atoms, thereby inhibiting Pt dissolution, through introducing rare earth bonded subsurface oxygen atoms. We have succeeded in introducing Gd−O dipoles into Pt₃Ni via a high temperature entropy-driven process, with direct spectral evidence attained from both soft and hard X-ray absorption spectroscopies. The higher rated power of 0.93 W cm⁻² and superior current density of 562.2 mA cm⁻² at 0.8 V than DOE target for heavy-duty vehicles in H₂-air mode suggest the great potential of Gd−O−Pt₃Ni towards practical application in heavy-duty transportation. Moreover, the mass activity retention (1.04 A mg_Pt⁻¹) after 40 k cycles accelerated durability tests is even 2.4 times of the initial mass activity goal for DOE 2025 (0.44 A mg_Pt⁻¹), due to the weakened Pt−O_ads bond interaction and the delayed place exchange process, via repulsive forces between surface O atoms and those in the sublayer. This work addresses the critical roadblocks to the widespread adoption of PEMFCs.