Enhanced bifunctional oxygen catalysis in strained LaNiO3 perovskites

Abstract

Strain is known to greatly influence low temperature oxygen electrocatalysis on noble metal films, leading to significant enhancements in bifunctional activity essential for fuel cells and metal-air batteries. However, its catalytic impact on transition metal oxide thin films, such as perovskites, is not widely understood. Here, we epitaxially strain the conducting perovskite LaNiO3 to systematically determine its influence on both the oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reaction. Uniquely, we found that compressive strain could significantly enhance both reactions, yielding a bifunctional catalyst that surpasses the performance of noble metals such as Pt. We attribute the improved bifunctionality to strain-induced splitting of the eg orbitals, which can customize orbital asymmetry at the surface. Analogous to strain-induced shifts in the d-band center of noble metals relative to Fermi level, such splitting can dramatically affect catalytic activity in this perovskite and other potentially more active oxides.

References in corpus (5)

• Orbital order and possible superconductivity in LaNiO3/LaMO3 superlattices
• Orbital reflectometry
• Asymmetric orbital-lattice interactions in ultra-thin correlated oxide films
• Strain and composition dependence of the orbital polarization in nickelate superlattices
• Orbital control in strained ultra-thin LaNiO${}_3$/LaAlO${}_3$ superlattices

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Large magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic oxide heterostructures assembled via epitaxial lift-off
• Charge transfer in iridate-manganite superlattices
• Trends of epitaxial perovskite oxide films catalyzing the oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline media
• Near-Room Temperature Ferromagnetic Insulating State in Highly Distorted LaCoO2.5 with CoO5 Square Pyramids
• Thickness Dependent OER Electrocatalysis of Epitaxial LaFeO${}_3$ Thin Films
• Band-Engineered LaFeO${}_3$-LaNiO${}_3$ Thin Film Interfaces for Electrocatalysis of Water
• Enhanced electrocatalytic oxygen evolution activity in geometrically designed SrRuO3 thin films
• Hard x-ray photoemission study on strain effect in LaNiO${}_3$ thin films