Isolated Electron‐Rich Ruthenium Atoms in Intermetallic Compounds for Boosting Electrochemical Nitric Oxide Reduction to Ammonia
Huaifang Zhang, Yanbo Li, Chuanqi Cheng, Jin Zhou, Pengfei Yin, Haoming Wu, Zhiqin Liang, Jiangwei Zhang, Qinbai Yun, An‐Liang Wang, Lijie Zhu, Bin Zhang, Wenbin Cao, Xiangmin Meng, Jing Xia, Yifu Yu, Qipeng Lu
Abstract
Abstract The direct electrochemical nitric oxide reduction reaction (NORR) is an attractive technique for converting NO into NH 3 with low power consumption under ambient conditions. Optimizing the electronic structure of the active sites can greatly improve the performance of electrocatalysts. Herein, we prepare body‐centered cubic RuGa intermetallic compounds (i.e., bcc RuGa IMCs) via a substrate‐anchored thermal annealing method. The electrocatalyst exhibits a remarkable NH 4 + yield rate of 320.6 μmol h −1 mg −1 Ru with the corresponding Faradaic efficiency of 72.3 % at very low potential of −0.2 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in neutral media. Theoretical calculations reveal that the electron‐rich Ru atoms in bcc RuGa IMCs facilitate the adsorption and activation of *HNO intermediate. Hence, the energy barrier of the potential‐determining step in NORR could be greatly reduced.