Strain Modified Oxygen Evolution Reaction Performance in Epitaxial, Freestanding, and Van der Waals Manganite Thin Films

In perovskite complex oxides, the strain has been established as a promising approach for tuning the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance by the manipulated electronic structure and interaction/coupling. In this study, we have employed rigid epitaxial, flexible freestanding, and van der Waals La_2/3Sr_1/3MnO₃(LSMO) to investigate the strain effects on OER, which are different in stress strength and range via lattice mismatch and curvature change. It was found that the OER performances as a function of strain exhibited volcano and monotonous trends in rigid and flexible LSMO, respectively. The findings suggest that distinguished oxygen activation energy in varied lattice fields also plays a crucial role in the epitaxial LSMO in contrast to the pure strain effect in the flexible LSMO. Our results not only fundamentally clarify the effort of strain but also technologically provide an effective route to engineer the electronic structure for modified OER performance by perovskite complex oxides.