An electrified insight into the thermocatalysis in water

In the latest issue of Nature Catalysis, Surendranath et al. demonstrate that thermochemical aerobic oxidations of organic small molecules can be analyzed as two coupled electrochemical half-reactions for O2 reduction and substrate oxidation, through which the unclear role of O2 can be clarified. This study shows a new possibility to gain quantitative and predictive insight into thermochemical catalysis from an electrochemical perspective.