The role of strain on metal catalysis has been widely investigated by theoretical calculations. It is hard to prove by direct experimental strategies. In this work, we show how the strain can be adjusted experimentally to modulate Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) activity. The strain value is derived from the X-ray diffraction (XRD) line broadening method. The d-band occupancy (n(d)) is calculated semi-quantitatively by magnetic characterization on a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). A volcano curve is correlated between strain and FTS activity. The combination of physical property such as mechanics, magnetization, hardness and density functional theory (DFT) calculations is proposed to elucidate a general strain induced reactivity behavior. Such a strain dependent behavior is related to the variation in d-band electronic property of the metal. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.