As Rh-exchanged Ni surface binds H ads weaker than clean Ni surface, there is no reason to expect that Ni-oxy-hydroxide surface will bind OH ads weaker than on pure Ni surface, Brønsted-Evans-Polanyi relations for water dissociation suggest lower H 2 O dissociation rate. Thus, slower Volmer and Heyrovsky reactions compared to pure Ni surface. However, on pure Ni-poly Tafel reaction is the RDS at low overpotentials due to strong binding of H ads , but this is not the case for Rh-exchanged surface, and the surface is effectively cleaned from H ads by fast recombination/desorption and the formation of molecular H 2 . However, we also observed an additional effect of surface oxidation.