A stable low-temperature H2-production catalyst by crowding Pt on ?-MoC

The water–gas shift (WGS) reaction is an industrially important source of pure hydrogen (H2) at the expense carbon monoxide and water1,2. This interest for fuel-cell applications, but requires WGS catalysts that are durable highly active low temperatures3. Here we demonstrate structure (Pt1–Ptn)/?-MoC, where isolated platinum atoms (Pt1) subnanometre clusters (Ptn) stabilized on ?-molybdenum carbide (?-MoC), catalyses even 313 kelvin, with a hydrogen-production pathway involving direct dissociation identified. We find it critical to crowd ?-MoC surface Pt1 Ptn species, which prevents oxidation support would cause catalyst deactivation, as seen gold/?-MoC (ref. 4), gives our system high stability metal-normalized turnover number 4,300,000 moles per mole platinum. We anticipate that the strategy demonstrated here will be pivotal for the design stable effective activation molecules such as water energy production. A stable, low-temperature water–gas shift achieved by crowding carbide; protects from deactivation.