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

Abstract 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 ( η OER =0.40 V).