Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Catalytic mechanisms

Revealing hidden nanoscale electrocatalysis

Nature Catalysis volume 8, pages 287–288 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Electrocatalytic mechanisms may underpin the function of what appear to be thermocatalytic reactions. Now, a probe molecule-based approach directly measures the extent of electrochemical polarization in operating catalysts.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Determining the catalyst surface potential, Ecat.

References

  1. Huang, X. et al. Nature 603, 271–275 (2022).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Wang, H.-X., Toh, W. L., Tang, B. Y. & Surendranath, Y. Nat. Catal. 6, 351–362 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Daniel, I. T. et al. ACS Catal. 13, 14189–14198 (2023).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Adams, J. S., Kromer, M. L., Rodríguez-López, J. & Flaherty, D. W. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 7940–7957 (2021).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Ryu, J. et al. Nat. Catal. 4, 742–752 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Razdan, N. K., Westendorff, K. S. & Surendranath, Y. Nat. Catal. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-025-01308-7 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kim, B. et al. ACS Catal. 14, 8488–8493 (2024).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. An, H., Sun, G., Hülsey, M. J., Sautet, P. & Yan, N. ACS Catal. 12, 15021–15027 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Zhao, Y. et al. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 10, 17207–17220 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA

    Steven McIntosh

Authors
  1. Steven McIntosh
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven McIntosh.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

McIntosh, S. Revealing hidden nanoscale electrocatalysis. Nat Catal 8, 287–288 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-025-01326-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-025-01326-5

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing