The hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cell (HEMFC) is a promising energy conversion technology but is limited by the need for platinum group metal (PGM) electrocatalysts, especially for the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR). Here we report a Ni-based HOR catalyst that exhibits an electrochemical surface area-normalized exchange current density of 70 μA cm^–2, the highest among PGM-free catalysts. The catalyst comprises Ni nanoparticles embedded in a nitrogen-doped carbon support. According to X-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy as well as H₂ chemisorption data, the electronic interaction between the Ni nanoparticles and the support leads to balanced hydrogen and hydroxide binding energies, which are the likely origin of the catalyst’s high activity. PGM-free HEMFCs employing this Ni-based HOR catalyst give a peak power density of 488 mW cm^–2, up to 6.4 times higher than previous best-performing analogous HEMFCs. This work demonstrates the feasibility of efficient PGM-free HEMFCs.

氢氧化物交换膜燃料电池 (HEMFC) 是一种很有前途的能量转换技术，但受限于对铂族金属 (PGM) 电催化剂的需求，特别是对于氢氧化反应 (HOR)。在这里，我们报告了一种镍基 HOR 催化剂，其电化学表面积归一化交换电流密度为 70 μA cm ^{- 2}，是无 PGM 催化剂中最高的。该催化剂包含嵌入氮掺杂碳载体中的Ni纳米颗粒。根据 X 射线和紫外光电子能谱以及 H ₂根据化学吸附数据，Ni 纳米颗粒和载体之间的电子相互作用导致平衡的氢和氢氧化物结合能，这可能是催化剂高活性的原因。采用这种镍基 HOR 催化剂的不含 PGM 的 HEMFC 的峰值功率密度为 488 mW cm ^{- 2}，比之前性能最佳的类似 HEMFC 高出 6.4 倍。这项工作证明了高效的无 PGM HEMFC 的可行性。