On-chip electrocatalytic microcells for high-throughput experimentation of electrocatalysts

On-chip electrocatalytic microcells (OCEMs) integrate working electrodes, reaction windows, and signal readout, offering structurally controllable and electronically addressable platforms with potential for high-throughput electrocatalysis. OCEMs enable precise control of catalyst features, including active sites, phase states, and defects, while tracking structural evolution and reaction intermediates in situ/operando. Coupling local current, electric fields, temperature, and strain modulation, OCEMs actively regulate catalytic behavior beyond conventional electrochemical measurements. When combined with automated high-throughput testing and machine learning, they generate interpretable and quantitative datasets, establishing clear structure-performance relationships. Together, these advances point toward an emerging OCEM-based high-throughput experimentation paradigm for data-driven, mechanism-informed catalyst design.