The Tunability of Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Flexible Van der Waals Manganite Membrane

Abstract Transition metal oxides (TMOs) have been intensively investigated in varied electrochemical processes owing to their features of low cost, stability, and substantial activity, etc. The strain engineering of a TMO has been proposed as a promising method for enhanced electrochemical activities due to its strongly electron correlated nature. Generally this type of investigation is carried out by separated TMO thin films on various substrates with a different lattice constant. In this study, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity of Van der Waals La_2/3Sr_1/3MnO₃ (LSMO) membrane is studied as a function of continuous strain manipulation via curvature change. It is found that a total of ≈800% OER activity tunability can be achieved by only ≈0.4% in situ strain modulation. Then the variation of in‐plane interaction strength of the e_g orbital is found to correspond to the sensitive OER tunability and 3dx²−y² orbital occupancy is favored in an OER enhancement of LSMO.