Intermolecular hydrogen bonds facilitating oxygen-oxygen bond cleavage via in-situ self-assembled organic molecular layer on Pt surface for oxygen reduction reaction

The popularization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells is hindered by low activity, poor stability and low utilization rate of Pt catalyst. Herein, an organic molecule layer (OML) is first in-situ directionally assembled on Pt surface via hydrogen bonding and Pt-N coordination. The amino group in OML bond with adsorbed O₂ to facilitate O–O cleavage based on hydrogen bond effect, enabling dual-channel electron acceptance and boosting the intrinsic activity of Pt by 5.5-fold. The OML also acts as a protective matrix to enhance the stability of Pt. In H₂/Air fuel cells, the catalyst achieves 1.11 W cm⁻² at 0.67 V with low Pt loading of 0.125 mg cm⁻². Notably, it delivers no current decay at 0.8 V, 10 mV potential decay at 0.8 A cm⁻², and a mere 6 % mass activity loss after 30,000 cycles. These results outperform DOE 2025 targets and state-of-the-art Pt catalysts. The OML construction strategy offers innovative concepts for high-performance Pt catalyst design and enables large-scale production.