Recent advancement of proton exchange membrane fuel cells has led to commercial sales of fuel-cell cars but market barrier exists because this technology heavily relies on platinum catalyst. Given the permission of adopting platinum-group-metal-free catalysts, anion-exchange membrane fuel cell has received notable attention. However, the sluggish kinetics of anodic hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) largely limit the cell efficiency. Although many high-performance HOR catalysts have been reported, there are analytical uncertainties in the literature concerning the assessment of the catalyst activity. Here we determine the origin of false HOR currents in the recorded polarization curves and propose a rigorous approach to eliminate them. We unveil experimentally the uncertainties of obtaining exchange current densities (j₀) using Tafel plot from Bulter–Volmer equation and recommend employing the micro-polarization region method. For bulky catalysts that cannot establish a well-defined diffusion layer, we suggest applying external stirring bar to offer certain level of enforced convection and using j₀ to compare the activity.

质子交换膜燃料电池的最新进展导致燃料电池汽车的商业销售，但存在市场壁垒，因为该技术严重依赖铂催化剂。由于允许采用不含铂族金属的催化剂，阴离子交换膜燃料电池受到了广泛关注。然而，阳极氢氧化反应（HOR）的缓慢动力学在很大程度上限制了电池效率。尽管已经报道了许多高性能 HOR 催化剂，但在有关催化剂活性评估的文献中存在分析不确定性。在这里，我们确定了记录的极化曲线中假 HOR 电流的来源，并提出了一种严格的方法来消除它们。我们通过实验揭示了获得交换电流密度的不确定性（j₀ ) 使用 Bulter–Volmer 方程中的 Tafel 图并推荐使用微极化区域法。对于无法建立明确扩散层的大体积催化剂，我们建议使用外部搅拌棒提供一定程度的强制对流，并使用j ₀来比较活性。