Upgrading the detection of electrocatalyst degradation during the oxygen evolution reaction

Electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are an important component for the transition from fossil to sus-tainable energy. Commercialization of cost-effective earth -abundant electrocatalysts is in large parts hindered by their degradation. In this short review, I identify common processes leading to a decrease in electrocatalyst activity, followed by an introduction of staple methods to determine degradation electrochemically and by additional physical characterization, which has the potential to remove ambiguities of purely elec-trochemical studies. I conclude by a summary of the key challenges for an accurate determination of degradation pro-cesses and highlight interesting directions to advance the un-derstanding of degradation processes on electrocatalysts in materials-centered model studies.