Unveiling a Cooperative Mechanism for the Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction: Role of Built‐in Electric Field (Adv. Energy Mater. 14/2025)

Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

The CuO-CuWO₄ catalyst serves as an excellent example of 'negative cooperativity,' in which the binding of one molecule decreases the affinity of other binding sites for additional molecules. The interplay between the built-in electric field and Gibbs free energy in the CuO-CuWO₄ catalyst gives rise to a favourable regime, where hydrogen bonding to the catalyst is optimized, facilitating an efficient hydrogen evolution reaction. More in article number 2405608, Vivek Bagchi and co-workers.