Pyroelectrically Induced Pyro-Electro-Chemical Catalytic Activity of BaTiO3 Nanofibers under Room-Temperature Cold–Hot Cycle Excitations

Abstract

A pyro-electro-chemical catalytic dye decomposition using lead-free BaTiO 3 nanofibers was realized under room-temperature cold-hot cycle excitation (30-47 • C) with a high Rhodamine B (RhB) decomposition efficiency~99%, which should be ascribed to the product of pyro-electric effect and electrochemical redox reaction. Furthermore, the existence of intermediate product of hydroxyl radical in pyro-electro-chemical catalytic process was also observed. There is no significant decrease in pyro-electro-chemical catalysis activity after being recycled five times. The pyro-electrically induced pyro-electro-chemical catalysis provides a high-efficient, reusable and environmentally friendly technology to remove organic pollutants from water.

Ferroelectric Polarization-Enhanced Photocatalysis in BaTiO3-TiO2 Core-Shell Heterostructures

“…The room temperature band gap of both BaTiO 3 [28] and anatase TiO 2 [29] can be taken to be 3.2 eV on the basis of the available data; therefore, difference in the light absorption of these two materials is negligible. In addition, the large decrement in C / C 0 of the pure BaTiO 3 crystallines at 120 min might have been caused by pyroelectric effect of BaTiO 3 [30] because the temperature changed noticeably after 90 min irradiation of the UV light.…”

Control of electro-chemical processes using energy harvesting materials and devices

“…Inspired by this research, the same group investigated the potential of pyroelectric dye degradation using lead-free/non-toxic BaTiO 3 nanofibers. 34 The decomposition of RhB was again high, up to 99%, when the material was subjected to 72 cold-hot cycles from 30 1C to 47 1C. In addition, there was no significant decrease in the pyro-electro-catalytic activity after five dye decompositions; thereby indicating the potential of the material for long-term operation.…”

Piezoelectric Materials for Controlling Electro-Chemical Processes

“…as a green initiative [134][135][136][137], and due to the need for environmental protection and socially sustainable materials, research related to alternative lead-free materials has become a significant research activity in recent decades [130,138,139]. The general piezoelectric/ferroelectric perovskites (ABO 3 -type) [140,141], in particular barium titanate [142][143][144][145] and bismuth ferrite [146][147][148][149], have been utilized to process functional advanced devices [150][151][152][153]. In addition to ABO 3 -type ferroelectric materials, wurtzite and non-ferroelectric zinc oxide materials have been considered as advanced piezoelectric materials and have been prepared in a variety of dimensions and morphologies to convert mechanical vibration energy into electric charge for a range of applications [18,25,47,69,[154][155][156].…”