Critical aspects in the reliable assessment of the activity data for electrocatalytic materials

The field of electrocatalysis has attracted significant attention during the last decades, resulting in a substantial increase in the number of published articles devoted to the evaluation of novel electrocatalytic materials. However, along with the progress in the field, this also resulted in increasing contradictions between the published results, often due to underestimation of various factors that can significantly affect the electrochemical and electrocatalytic properties of the studied materials. Here, we discuss some of these factors that, if not properly considered, can result in pitfalls and even wrong conclusions during the analysis of electrocatalytic materials.