Terracing Oxyphilic Platinum Sustains High‐Rate Ammonia Electrolysis and Fuel Cells
The sluggish kinetics and catalyst poisoning of the ammonia oxidation reaction (AOR) pose technical barriers to adopting ammonia as a distributable carrier for green hydrogen and electricity. Herein, a class of PtIrRh nanowires (NWs, ≈1 nm diameter) is report with abundant terraces and oxyphilic doping for enhanced AOR electrocatalysis. It is first unravel, through size-dependent AOR activity, that well-coordinated terraces outperform under-coordinated steps on platinum, guiding the rational design of 1D architecture. The compositionally-optimized Pt<sub>86</sub>Ir<sub>5</sub>Rh<sub>9</sub> NWs achieve a mass activity of 324 A g<sup>-1</sup> <sub>PGM</sub> at 0.6 V, alongside an on-set potential (E<sub>on-set</sub>) of 0.41 V. Electrochemical studies coupling in situ attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectra establish voltammetry-accessible descriptors: surface oxyphilicity governs the E<sub>on-set</sub>, while nitrogenous adsorption strength dictates peak current density (j<sub>peak</sub>). In a membrane electrode assembly, the Pt<sub>86</sub>Ir<sub>5</sub>Rh<sub>9</sub> NWs enable ammonia electrolysis at 1 A cm<sup>-2</sup> with a cell voltage of 0.63 V-1 V lower than the typical value of water electrolysis, and drive a direct ammonia fuel cell to 339 mW cm<sup>-2</sup> at 0.4 V. The findings redefine Pt-based AOR catalyst design and advance ammonia-mediated hydrogen economy toward practicality.
Authors
- Mingchuan Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9772-2154)
- Wenhe Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3166-622X)
- Ying Ji (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2985-6449)
- Yun Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5531-7089)
- Yi Wei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3016-6816)
- Jibin Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6426-9015)
- Zichang Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9709-4770)
- Hengshuo Huang
- Yangkai Han
- Xueda Ding
- Tingting Mao
- Fengwang Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1531-2966)
- Teng Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4927-5999)
- Junyi Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5410-9798)
- Lei Lei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5372-8749)
- Yilin Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3011-2193)
- Jialei Huang
- Zehong Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3107-0031)
- Nannan Liang
Institutions
- King University (US)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Materials
- Published
- 2025-11-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202514467
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.17