effective at oxidizing CO to form CO2, a much less harmful fuel contaminant. The mechanism that produces this effect is conceptually similar to that described for Pt3Ni above: the ruthenium core of the particle alters the electronic structure of the platinum surface, rendering it better able to catalyze the oxidation of CO. Lowering cost The challenge for the viability of PEM fuel cells today still remains in their cost and stability. The high cost can in large part be attributed to the use of the precious metal of platinum in the catalyst layer of PEM cells. The electrocatalyst currently accounts for nearly half of the fuel cell stack cost. Although the Pt loading of PEM fuel cells has been reduced by two orders of magnitude over the past decade, further reduction is necessary to make the technology economically viable for commercialization. Whereas some research efforts aim to address this issue by improving the electrocatalytic activity of Pt-based catalysts, an alternative is to eliminate the use of Pt altogether by developing a non-platinum-group-metal (non-PGM) cathode catalyst whose performance rivals that of Pt-based technologies. The U.S. Department of Energy has been setting milestones for the development of fuel cells, targeting a durability of 5000 hours and a non-PGM catalyst ORR volumetric activity of 300 A cm−3. Promising alternatives to Pt-based catalysts are Metal/Nitrogen/ Carbon-catalysts (M/N/C-catalysts). To achieve high power density, or output of power over surface area of the cell, a volumetric activity of at least 1/10 that of Pt-based catalysts must be met, along with good mass transport properties. While M/N/C-catalysts still demonstrate poorer volumetric activities than Pt-based catalysts, the reduced costs of such catalysts allows for greater loading to compensate. However, increasing the loading of M/N/C-catalysts also renders the catalytic layer thicker, impairing its mass transport properties. In other words, H2, O2, protons, and electrons have greater difficulty in migrating through the catalytic layer, decreasing the voltage output of the cell. While high microporosity of the M/N/C catalytic network results in high volumetric activity, improved mass transport properties are instead associated to macroporosity of the network. These M/N/C materials are synthesized using high temperature pyrolysis and other high temperature treatments of precursors containing the metal, nitrogen, and carbon. Recently, researchers have developed a Fe/N/C catalyst derived from iron (II) acetate (FeAc), phenanthroline (Phen), and a metal-organic-framework (MOF) host. The MOF is a Zn(II) zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) called ZIF-8, which