Enabling PIEZOpotential in PIEZOelectric Semiconductors for Enhanced Catalytic Activities

Abstract

The past several decades have witnessed significant advances in the synthesis and applications of PIEZOelectric semiconductors, an important class of materials, including piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and ferroelectric semiconductors. The intriguing combination of physical and chemical phenomena in PIEZOelectric semiconductors has triggered much interest in PIEZOcatalysis, that is, catalysis enabled by PIEZOpotential (i.e., piezopotential, pyropotential, and ferropotential)‐induced built‐in electric fields, which is the focus of this Minireview. First, the PIEZOelectric materials are briefly introduced. Second, recent developments in PIEZOcatalysis are highlighted, including the introduction of representative PIEZOelectric semiconductors, their possible catalytic mechanisms, novel techniques to produce their PIEZOelectric effects during the catalytic process, and several examples of PIEZOcatalysis. Finally, the challenges in the field and exciting opportunities to further improve the PIEZOcatalytic efficiency are discussed.

Thermal Excitation Polarized Field Drives Photoelectric Catalysis for Dye Degradation in a BaTiO3/CdS Heterojunction through Integration of Solar and Thermal Energy

“…Therefore, the positive and negative electric centers in wurtzite CdS do not coincide, resulting in an electric field pointing from the positive electric center to the negative electric center [38] . Figure 4c schematically illustrates the mechanism of pyroelectric catalysis [39] . In thermodynamic equilibrium, polarization charges are shielded by surface charges.…”

Competing electronic states emerging on polar surfaces

“…The charge ordering originating from the large amount of uncompensated charge available on the polar surface is an interesting feature, which might explain the long lifetimes of polarized microdomains induced by photocarriers 43 , 48 . The possibility to control surface ferroelectric polarization by charge trapping through the formation of bipolarons represents a novel physical effect that could be important for applications such as piezocatalysis or pyrocatalysis 49 , where the surfaces turns polar once the bulk material switches between the ferroelectric and paraelectric states.…”

Construction of Infrared‐Light‐Responsive Photoinduced Carriers Driver for Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

“…Pyroelectric materials can form positive and negative pyroelectric fields only by temperature oscillation‐dependent spontaneous polarization, which may function as a driving force to govern the directional migration of photogenerated carriers and thereby promote the separation of carriers 25–28. As mentioned above, the photothermal conversion efficiency of infrared light can be high.…”