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

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 mgmgcat @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–N2 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-NZIF interaction is key to enable strong N2 adsorption over H atom. Ministry of Education (MOE) Nanyang Technological University This research is supported by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, under Tier 1 (RG11/18) and Tier 2 (MOE2016-T2- 1-043) grants, and Max Planck Institute-Nanyang Technological University Joint Lab. H.Y.F.S., C.S.L.K. and G.C.P.-Q. thank scholarship support from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. J.R.T.C. and J.Y.P. thank CN Yang scholarship. H.K.L. thanks the International Postdoctoral Scholarship support from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Singapore Ministry of Education. We thank Mr. Poh Chong Lim, A*STAR, for XRD analysis.