In the previous approach, we created a local thermochemical network where ∆ A H are referenced to the elemental chemical potentials derived from a set of anchor species A. Here, we show that it is possible to cut the "middleman" of elemental potentials and use the anchor species directly to compute ∆ A H. As demonstrated above, the choice of reference species is in principle arbitrary, but there are some constraints that must be followed. One reference species must be chosen for every element to form an atomic basis set. As we will see in this section, the stoichiometry of anchor species must also not be linearly dependent. Common choices for the sets of reference species in computational catalysis are typically gas-phase molecules like CO, H 2 , H 2 O or, CH 4 ,H 2 , H 2 O 148,149 . A vacant metal slab, e.g., Pt(111), has to be added for adsorbed species. The construction of local thermochemical networks is frequently used in the literature, although anchor species often vary between studies and are not always explicitly stated. Referencing a single target species directly to a set of anchor species works as follows: We construct a hypothetical reaction to form the target (either gas-phase species or adsorbate) from the set of anchor species, i.e., CH 4 , H 2 O, H 2 , and Pt(111).