Despite over half a century of development, catalysts still cannot mimic the efficiency of plants in producing oxygen. By considering spatiotemporal aspects in electrocatalyst design, researchers can transplant the concept of direct oxo–oxo coupling from natural metalloenzymes to heterogeneous catalyst surfaces, thus pushing oxygen-evolution activity beyond conventional limits.
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Acknowledgements
This work received financial support from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the Center of Excellence for Renewable Energy and Storage Technologies under award number 5937 and the KAUST Supercomputing Laboratory under project k10175.
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Ren, Y., Huang, KW. & Zhang, H. Pursuing spatiotemporal coordination in electrocatalysis. Nat Rev Chem 9, 501–503 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-025-00741-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-025-00741-3