Ammonia is considered a carbon-free hydrogen carrier because of its ease of liquefaction and high hydrogen content and compatibility with existing infrastructure. To advance the use of ammonia as a scalable and cost-effective energy carrier, significant improvements are required across multiscale in the field of ammonia oxidation electrocatalysts. However, the development of efficient electrocatalysts for the electrochemical oxidation of ammonia is hindered by the limited understanding of the electrochemical reaction mechanism (e.g., nitrogen oxides (NOx) poisoning) during ammonia oxidation reaction (AOR). In this study, intermetallic PtZn (L10-PtZn/C and L12-Pt3Zn/C) catalysts were synthesized through a self-generated template method, where Zn species act a self-template during the annealing step as well as a dopant, and the effects of the catalyst structure and composition on the AOR performance were investigated. L12-Pt3Zn/C selectively stabilizes *NH intermediate on the surface and exhibits improved AOR activity and stability by significantly reducing NOx poisoning, as revealed by in situ attenuated total reflection surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy. This provides a strategy to overcome the limitations of Pt-based catalysts. It also contributes to the efficient use of renewable energy, environmental protection, and the development of low-carbon energy systems.
Min et al. (Thu,) studied this question.