ZIF‐Induced d‐Band Modification in a Bimetallic Nanocatalyst: Achieving Over 44 % Efficiency in the Ambient Nitrogen Reduction Reaction

Abstract

Abstract The electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) offers a sustainable solution towards ammonia production but suffers poor reaction performance owing to preferential catalyst–H formation and the consequential hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Now, the Pt/Au electrocatalyst d‐band structure is electronically modified using zeolitic imidazole framework (ZIF) to achieve a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of >44 % with high ammonia yield rate of >161 μg mg cat −1 h −1 under ambient conditions. The strategy lowers electrocatalyst d‐band position to weaken H adsorption and concurrently creates electron‐deficient sites to kinetically drive NRR by promoting catalyst–N 2 interaction. The ZIF coating on the electrocatalyst doubles as a hydrophobic layer to suppress HER, further improving FE by >44‐fold compared to without ZIF (ca. 1 %). The Pt/Au‐N ZIF interaction is key to enable strong N 2 adsorption over H atom.