Strain Engineering for Electrocatalytic Overall Water Splitting

Strain engineering is a novel method that can achieve superior performance for different applications. The lattice strain can affect the performance of electrochemical catalysts by changing the binding energy between the surface-active sites and intermediates and can be affected by the thickness, surface defects and composition of the materials. In this review, we summarized the basic principle, characterization method, introduction strategy and application direction of lattice strain. The reactions on hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are focused. Finally, the present challenges are summarized, and suggestions for the future development of lattice strain in electrocatalytic overall water splitting are put forward. Lattice strain engineering can improve the reaction rate by adjusting the adsorption energy of the intermediate in the process of overall water splitting. In this review, we briefly summarize the principle of lattice strain and its introduction, characterization and applications. image