Universality in Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysis: High-Throughput Screening and a Priori Determination of the Rate-Determining Reaction Step

Material screening is commonly based on the assessment of linear scaling relations that translate to a Volcano curve in order to identify promising electrode materials, situated at the apex of the Volcano. Recently, an advanced material-screening approach, entitled ESSI-descriptor activity maps, has been introduced by the author. This methodology goes beyond the thermodynamic framework of Volcano plots, as the concept of ESSI-descriptor activity maps evaluates, besides binding energies, the kinetics, applied overpotential, and catalytic symmetry in terms of the electrochemical-step symmetry index (ESSI). Herein, the concept of ESSI-descriptor activity maps is exerted to the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) to derive universal relationships. In contrast to the common procedure in the literature, a suitable range of values for the linear scaling relation's offset is a priori included in the presented model, which enables high-throughput screening of OER catalysts and determination of the rate-determining reaction step (rds) at overpotentials corresponding to typical reaction conditions (eta(OER)=0.40 V).