Insight into the Mechanism for Catalytic Activity of the Oxygen/Hydrogen Evolution Reaction on a Dual-Site Catalyst

The dual-site catalysts consisting of two adjacent single-atom sites on graphene have exhibited promising catalytic activity of the electrochemical oxygen/hydrogen evolution reaction (OER/HER). However, the electrochemical mechanisms of the OER/HER on dual-site catalysts have still been ambiguous. In this work, we employed density functional theory calculations to study the catalytic activity of the OER/HER with a O-O (H-H) direct coupling mechanism on dual-site catalysts. Specifically, these element steps should be classified into two categories: a step evolving proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET step) that needs to be driven by electrode potential and a step without PCET (non-PCET step) that occurs naturally under mild conditions. Our calculated results show that both the maximal free energy change (ΔG_Max) contributed by the PCET step and the activity barrier (E_a) of the non-PCET step must be examined to evaluate the catalytic activity of the OER/HER on the dual site. Importantly, it is a basically inevitable negative relationship between ΔG_Max and E_a, which would play a critical role in guiding the rational design of effective dual-site catalysts for electrochemical reactions.