Direct ammonia fuel cells (DAFCs) are promising for decarbonized electricity generation. However, the sluggish ammonia oxidation reaction (AOR) has long been the major roadblock. Although Pt(100) facet features high AOR activity, fabricating ultrasmall (3 dehydrogenation. Moreover, Zn-induced surface compression lowers the barrier of rate-determining dehydrogenation step by shortening the hydrogen bonds between *NH3 and *OH. Our PtIr─Zn NCs catalyst exhibits both high intrinsic activity and mass activity, delivering an ultralow onset potential of 0.355 V and a peak mass activity of 238.3 mA mgPt+Ir -1. The DAFC employing PtIr─Zn NCs achieves an open-circuit voltage of 0.60 V and a peak power density of 76.0 mW cm-2.
Lyu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.