We present a precise and general method to map the activity of electrocatalysts across multiple sites. Starting from a mean-field statistical mechanics model, we introduce an effective adsorption free energy descriptor that explicitly incorporates lateral adsorbate-adsorbate interactions, enabling the construction of coverage-consistent volcano relationships. Extending this approach, we show that adsorption energetics and interaction strength define a two-dimensional activity landscape that gives rise to a "volcano ridge" that captures the coupled influence of binding and interactions on catalytic performance. For multi-site systems, we demonstrate that the inherently nonlinear coupling between distinct adsorption environments leads to multi-peaked activity trends that cannot be represented by conventional single-site descriptors. To address this, we introduce a reduced descriptor mapping that projects the multidimensional activity landscape onto a single effective coordinate while preserving the underlying physics of site heterogeneity and lateral interactions. The resulting framework generalizes Sabatier-type analysis to complex alloy catalysts and provides a physically interpretable route for screening electrocatalytic materials of arbitrary compositional complexity.
@article{arxiv.2605.02688,
title = {Unified Mapping of Multi-Site Electrocatalytic Activity Using a Single Descriptor},
author = {A. Dana and D. Terrones and S. Gelin and I. Dabo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.02688},
year = {2026}
}