For the large-scale sustainable implementation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells in vehicles, high-performance electrocatalysts with low platinum consumption are desirable for use as cathode material during the oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells. Here we report a carbon black-supported cost-effective, efficient and durable platinum single-atom electrocatalyst with carbon monoxide/methanol tolerance for the cathodic oxygen reduction reaction. The acidic single-cell with such a catalyst as cathode delivers high performance, with power density up to 680 mW cm−2 at 80 °C with a low platinum loading of 0.09 mgPt cm−2, corresponding to a platinum utilization of 0.13 gPt kW−1 in the fuel cell. Good fuel cell durability is also observed. Theoretical calculations reveal that the main effective sites on such platinum single-atom electrocatalysts are single-pyridinic-nitrogen-atom-anchored single-platinum-atom centres, which are tolerant to carbon monoxide/methanol, but highly active for the oxygen reduction reaction.

The hydroformylation of propene to linear-butaldehyde can be performed efficiently in a continuous fixed-bed reactor employing the copolymer self-supported heterogeneous Rh/CPOL-bp&P catalysts.

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Nature Communications 8: Article number: 15938 (2017); Published: 24 July 2017; Updated: 27 September 2017. The affiliation details for one of the corresponding authors, Ying Wang, are incorrect in this Article. This author is incorrectly affiliated with ‘University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.