Matt publishes a paper exploring the relationship between strain and oxygen vacancy formation in functional oxides

Matt’s paper provides experimental evidence for the link between strain and oxygen vacancy formation in thin film perovskites, a topic that has been largely dominated by theory-based approaches. Thin films of the state-of-the-art oxygen evolution reaction catalyst SrIrO₃ were deposited on crystal substrates with varied atomic spacing to impose varied strain states in the films. Through in situ X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy, we show that tensile epitaxial strain makes oxygen vacancy formation more favorable and reveal the effect of strain on complete oxygen removal and full reduction from Ir⁴⁺ to Ir⁰. This work contributes to the understanding of the nature of oxygen vacancies within electrocatalysts, and ultimately, to the development of enhanced functional oxides. Congratulations Matt!