Platinum (Pt) remains the benchmark electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), yet its high cost impedes deployment in fuel cells. Reducing Pt loading while preserving stability and accessibility is therefore essential. Here, we report a urea‐bridged strategy to anchor ultra‐low Pt on a nitrogen‐doped carbon support (NCA 1.5 ‐Pt Urea , 1.72 wt% Pt). Urea acts as a bridging molecule, connecting Pt precursor and N/O‐functional groups of the support to form a PtCl 6 2− ‐Urea‐NCA 1.5 ternary assembly, achieving preliminary dispersion of platinum. During annealing, its decomposition induces secondary nitrogen doping, tunes the electronic structure, enhances the strong interaction between metal and support, confines Pt growth, ultimately yielding uniform nanoparticles of ~2 nm in diameter. In 0.1 M KOH, NCA 1.5 ‐Pt Urea delivers a half‐wave potential (E 1/2 ) of 0.88 V (vs. RHE), outperforming 20 wt% Pt/C (0.86 V vs. RHE). Notably, after 10,000 cyclic voltammetry cycles, the E 1/2 loss is only 4 mV, compared with 27 mV for Pt/C. When implemented as the cathode catalyst in an aluminum‐air battery, NCA 1.5 ‐Pt Urea achieves a peak power density of 582.3 mW cm −2 (vs. 335.9 mW cm −2 for Pt/C) and sustains stable discharge. This urea‐bridged strategy, integrating molecular coordination with support engineering, offers a practical route to maximize Pt utilization at ultralow loadings.
Liu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.