Local pH engineering to impact electrocatalysis
Abstract
Local pH refers to the pH gradient developed within the diffusion layer of the electrode, which can deviate significantly from the bulk value due to proton consumption or generation during electrocatalytic reactions. The proton availability is often a thermodynamic or kinetic limiting factor during electrocatalytic reactions involving proton-electron transfer as determining step. Thus, controlling local pH can effectively impact on both reaction selectivity and activity. In this short review, we present recent advances and strategies emerged to effectively tune the local pH and impact on different electrocatalytic reactions, such as CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR), electrochemical nitrate reduction (ENR), O 2 reduction reaction (ORR) and ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR). The catalyst engineering approach through microenvironment modification, tuning mass transport conditions by catalyst size and porosity, as well as by pulsed potential electrolysis are the strategies described here.
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BibTeX
@article{decker2026local,
title = {{Local pH engineering to impact electrocatalysis}},
author = {Maxime Decker and Quentin Lenne and Jalal Ghilane and Carlos Sánchez-Sánchez},
journal = {Current Opinion in Electrochemistry},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.coelec.2025.101728},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05782493v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Local pH engineering to impact electrocatalysis
AU - Maxime Decker
AU - Quentin Lenne
AU - Jalal Ghilane
AU - Carlos Sánchez-Sánchez
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/06
JO - Current Opinion in Electrochemistry
DO - 10.1016/j.coelec.2025.101728
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05782493v1
AB - Local pH refers to the pH gradient developed within the diffusion layer of the electrode, which can deviate significantly from the bulk value due to proton consumption or generation during electrocatalytic reactions. The proton availability is often a thermodynamic or kinetic limiting factor during electrocatalytic reactions involving proton-electron transfer as determining step. Thus, controlling local pH can effectively impact on both reaction selectivity and activity. In this short review, we present recent advances and strategies emerged to effectively tune the local pH and impact on different electrocatalytic reactions, such as CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR), electrochemical nitrate reduction (ENR), O 2 reduction reaction (ORR) and ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR). The catalyst engineering approach through microenvironment modification, tuning mass transport conditions by catalyst size and porosity, as well as by pulsed potential electrolysis are the strategies described here.
SN - 2451-9103
SN - 2451-9103
ER -