Precious metal free tunable manganese oxides for sustainable anion exchange membrane fuel cells
Abstract
Eliminating platinum group metals from cathode catalysts in low-temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cells is highly important for addressing the sustainability challenge fuel cell systems face. Here, we propose modifying the electronic structure of Li-intercalated layered Mn-oxide as a cathode catalyst to overcome the activity/stability tradeoff in anion exchange membrane fuel cells. To achieve this goal, we deploy a precious metal free catalyst design strategy involving atomically dispersed p -block metal Sn doped in Li ₂ MnO ₃ , in addition to d -block metals, which has been poorly explored in the research thus far. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy and rapid freeze-quench ¹¹⁹ Sn Mössbauer methodology are employed to visualize the catalytic dynamics, revealing that part of Mn ⁴⁺ ions are converted into Mn ³⁺ ions, whereas Sn ⁴⁺ ions remain unchanged during the oxygen reduction reaction. Under H ₂ /O ₂ conditions, anion exchange membrane fuel cells employing Li ₂ Mn 0.9 Sn 0.1 O ₃ cathodes achieve peak power densities above 1.0 W cm ⁻² geo and 3.96 W mg ⁻¹ Pt . This work demonstrates the beneficial modulation of the electronic structure through p -block metal substitution in earth-abundant Mn-enriched oxide materials.
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BibTeX
@article{zhong2026precious,
title = {{Precious metal free tunable manganese oxides for sustainable anion exchange membrane fuel cells}},
author = {Xuepeng Zhong and Chuangxin Ge and Shengjie Zhang and Hainan Wei and Menghao Yang and Xiong Zhang and Jiuyi Wang and Yang Zhao and Jiayi Li and Na Xu and Lijun Sui and Toshinari Koketsu and Chenlong Gao and Lin Zhuang and Nicolas Alonso-Vante and Jing Zhou and Juping Xu and Wen Yin and Chih-Wen Pao and Wei-Hsiang Huang and Wang Hay Kan and Xuning Li and Zhiwei Hu and Peter Strasser and Jiwei Ma},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-78358-3},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78358-3},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Precious metal free tunable manganese oxides for sustainable anion exchange membrane fuel cells
AU - Xuepeng Zhong
AU - Chuangxin Ge
AU - Shengjie Zhang
AU - Hainan Wei
AU - Menghao Yang
AU - Xiong Zhang
AU - Jiuyi Wang
AU - Yang Zhao
AU - Jiayi Li
AU - Na Xu
AU - Lijun Sui
AU - Toshinari Koketsu
AU - Chenlong Gao
AU - Lin Zhuang
AU - Nicolas Alonso-Vante
AU - Jing Zhou
AU - Juping Xu
AU - Wen Yin
AU - Chih-Wen Pao
AU - Wei-Hsiang Huang
AU - Wang Hay Kan
AU - Xuning Li
AU - Zhiwei Hu
AU - Peter Strasser
AU - Jiwei Ma
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/09
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-78358-3
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-78358-3
AB - Eliminating platinum group metals from cathode catalysts in low-temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cells is highly important for addressing the sustainability challenge fuel cell systems face. Here, we propose modifying the electronic structure of Li-intercalated layered Mn-oxide as a cathode catalyst to overcome the activity/stability tradeoff in anion exchange membrane fuel cells. To achieve this goal, we deploy a precious metal free catalyst design strategy involving atomically dispersed p -block metal Sn doped in Li ₂ MnO ₃ , in addition to d -block metals, which has been poorly explored in the research thus far. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy and rapid freeze-quench ¹¹⁹ Sn Mössbauer methodology are employed to visualize the catalytic dynamics, revealing that part of Mn ⁴⁺ ions are converted into Mn ³⁺ ions, whereas Sn ⁴⁺ ions remain unchanged during the oxygen reduction reaction. Under H ₂ /O ₂ conditions, anion exchange membrane fuel cells employing Li ₂ Mn 0.9 Sn 0.1 O ₃ cathodes achieve peak power densities above 1.0 W cm ⁻² geo and 3.96 W mg ⁻¹ Pt . This work demonstrates the beneficial modulation of the electronic structure through p -block metal substitution in earth-abundant Mn-enriched oxide materials.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -