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Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays an important role in water electrolysis, which is considered a promising pathway for hydrogen energy storage. However, the harsh catalytic environment with strong acid and high overpotential always results in a dynamic evolution toward both the catalyst structure and the interface configuration, making it difficult to confirm the actual structure relationship toward the OER catalysts. Fortunately, in situ techniques could shed light on monitoring the transition in real time so that the relationship between the OER performance and the dynamic configuration under operation could be determined. Herein, we present a comprehensive summary toward the state-of-the-art technologies along with a series of successful cases. In each section, based on the introduction to the fundamental of each technique, demonstrations toward the common reaction intermediate configuration and the mechanism are discussed. Further, breakthroughs toward the OER such as the new configuration of the intermediates, abnormal transition of the phase/valence state, new reaction pathways, and several other exciting discoveries are introduced for obtaining the most modern insights toward the OER. Finally, we make a brief perspective toward the dilemma each technology is facing, which is proposed to be overcome in the future.
Meng et al. (Tue,) studied this question.