Addressing complexity in catalyst design: From volcanos and scaling to more sophisticated design strategies

Volcano plots and scaling relations are commonly used to design catalysts and understand catalytic behavior. These plots are a useful tool due to their robust and simple analysis of catalysis; however, catalysts that follow the volcano plot paradigm have an inherent limit to their performance. Scaling and Brønsted-Evans-Polanyi (BEP) relations, which are linear correlations in reaction energetics, force tradeoffs when optimizing catalysts, which leads to this limit on performance. Therefore, materials and design strategies that are not limited by volcano plots and scaling relations are of high interest, and this is the focus of this Report. We first give an overview of volcano plots and scaling relations. Deviations from scaling relations and the volcano plot and their causes are discussed in more detail. Finally, design strategies that do not rely on the volcano plot paradigm are reviewed.