Hydrogen Fuel Cells With Less Platinum: How a Hollow-Carbon Catalyst Lasts 25,000 Hours

Hydrogen fuel cells turn hydrogen and oxygen into electricity, with water as the only product. They power some buses and cars, and are being considered as backup and primary power for energy-hungry data centres^[1]. Their weak point is cost, and much of that cost is platinum. In August 2026 researchers reported a catalyst design that uses very little platinum yet lasts much longer^[1]. Here is the chemistry behind it.

Inside a fuel cell

A fuel cell is like a battery that never runs flat as long as fuel is supplied. In the common proton-exchange membrane (PEM) type, with an acidic membrane:

• Anode (oxidation): H₂ → 2H⁺ + 2e⁻
• Cathode (reduction): O₂ + 4H⁺ + 4e⁻ → 2H₂O
• Overall: 2H₂ + O₂ → 2H₂O

The platinum problem

Both reactions need a catalyst to run fast enough, and the oxygen reaction at the cathode is particularly sluggish. Platinum is the best practical catalyst, but it is scarce and expensive. Two things make platinum catalysts hard to improve:

• Surface area: only atoms on the surface of a particle can catalyse, so particles must be tiny (a few nanometres) to make the most of each gram.
• Durability: tiny particles tend to dissolve, clump together or detach as the cell repeatedly switches load, so the catalyst slowly loses activity.

What the 2026 design did

Gang Wu's team at Washington University in St. Louis, with Brookhaven and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, Northeastern University and the University of Pittsburgh, tackled both problems together^[1]:

• They grew platinum–cobalt intermetallic nanoparticles (an ordered alloy, with the two metals in a regular atomic arrangement) smaller than 5 nm^[1].
• The particles sit inside porous hollow carbon spheres with orderly radial nanochannels, which hold them in place^[1].
• Heating to 1,000 °C ordered the atoms without letting the particles clump^[1].
• Platinum loading was under a quarter of a milligram per square centimetre^[1].
• The catalyst kept 85% of its performance after 150,000 severe voltage cycles, an estimated 25,000 hours of operation^[1].

The work was published in Nature Nanotechnology on 6 August 2026^[1]. The authors note it still needs further development with industry partners before commercial use^[1].

Why data centres?

Data centres were projected to use about 9% of US electricity by 2030, up from about 4% in 2023^[1]. Fuel cells running on hydrogen could provide steady, low-emission power on site, but only if the cells are affordable and long-lasting. That is why catalyst durability, not just activity, was the focus of this work.

Fuel cells link redox, catalysts and energy, three topics examiners love to combine. Our chemistry tutoring builds half-equations step by step. Related: making green hydrogen with light.