From Table , it can be seen that the adsorption free energies are shifted to higher values in the solvent phase than gas phase for the majority of functional-intermediate combinations. It is to be noted that here we consider the formation of ORR intermediates on the Pt(111) surface with respect to the water BL network in contrast to the conventional gas phase scenario where the adsorption energies are calculated with reference to the bare slab model. From the gas phase results, it is evident that the inclusion of dispersion interactions significantly affects the adsorption strength of ORR intermediates on the Pt(111) surface. All the methods except D2 result in stronger binding of ORR intermediates, whereas the D2 method shows a slightly lesser binding for *O compared to PBE or RPBE methods. The comparatively lesser adsorption feasibility seen in the solvent phase can be expected to be originating from the energy requirement for the structural rearrangements associated with the adsorption of intermediates into the water bilayer. The highest disparity between the adsorption free energies between gas and solvent phases observed for *O2 and *O, which are previously shown to exhibit the maximum structural changes in the BL, supporting this notion. It is noteworthy that the adsorption free energies for *OH do not differ much between solvent and gas phases as the presence of *OH causes the hexagonal network to be more rigid.