Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Kinetic measurements can support or falsify mechanistic hypotheses in electrocatalysis, but only when rates reflect intrinsic catalytic behavior and models separate kinetic information from experimental artifacts and interfacial complexity. This perspective presents best practices for acquiring and interpreting electrocatalytic kinetic data, including mitigating artifacts arising from transport, ohmic losses, catalyst restructuring, contamination, and incomplete product accounting. Similarly, we provide guidelines for constructing rate expressions that treat elementary charge transfer, adsorption, and surface coverage, which enable interpretation of kinetic observables like apparent transfer coefficients, rate orders, and apparent activation energies that reflect properties of an interconnected reaction network. Mechanistic conclusions are strongest when competing hypotheses are tested against multiple complementary observables, including spectroscopy, isotopic labeling, and theory, enabling meaningful and reproducible mechanistic comparisons across laboratories.
Source: ChemRxiv
Institutions: Rice University, University of Virginia, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Material Measurement Laboratory, Case Western Reserve University, University of Colorado Boulder, The University of Texas at Austin, University of Minnesota, University of Minnesota System, The Ohio State University, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Pennsylvania, City College of New York, Pennsylvania State University, University of Washington
Language: English
Field: Energy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7223183698