A review of stress regulation in electrocatalyst design: rational modulation and applications in water splitting

As an efficient green hydrogen production technology, water electrolysis promotes global energy transition and carbon neutrality. Poor catalytic activity and durability restrict its energy efficiency and industrial application. Strain engineering effectively regulates electronic structures, reaction kinetics and lattice stability to address the key issues of water splitting. Different from previous reviews that merely focused on single lattice strain and activity-oriented mechanism analysis, while ignoring the surface stress effect, HER/OER mechanistic differences, and industrial stability demands, we herein conduct a systematic review of state-of-the-art advances in strain engineering applied to the rational design of electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction and oxygen evolution reaction. The unique strengths of strain regulation in enhancing catalytic activity and stability are elaborated, and the intrinsic modulation mechanisms behind different strain effects are generalized. Meanwhile, some representative catalysts based on lattice strain engineering and surface stress regulation are analyzed and discussed. Finally, the challenges, opportunities and research trends of strain modulation for high-performance water-splitting electrocatalysts are highlighted, laying a theoretical foundation for the rational design and fabrication of advanced electrocatalytic materials.