Recent trend in renewable energy utilization necessitates new requirements for water splitting technology. For example, mild conditions at near neutral pH allow many electrode materials to be operational including many semiconductor photoelectrodes. However, fundamental understanding of water-splitting kinetics under such conditions is lacking. It is well accepted that buffering action is considered inevitable especially at high rates, but our elucidation pins down such effects quantitatively, dividing the functions into solution resistance, concentration overpotential, and kinetic contribution in an electrocatalytic systems. Optimization of electrolyte, or electrolyte engineering, led to the discovery of new reaction environments for improved water electrolysis in more benign conditions, and potentially towards membrane-less systems..
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