Synthesis of novel flower-like Bi4Ti3O12/BiOCl heterojunctions with excellent piezoelectric photocatalytic performance

Photocatalysis technology can not only degrade pollutants by renewable solar energy, but also has enormous promise for resolving environmental issues. The piezoelectric field inside the piezoelectric material can be used as the driving force of charge separation to improve the photocatalytic activity. In order to study the catalytic effect of piezoelectric materials on photocatalysis, a flower-like Bi4Ti3O12/BiOCl (BTO/BOC) composite catalyst is prepared in this paper. The photogenerated carrier separation efficiency is characterized by electrochemical, PL and ESR tests. BOC's built-in electric field helps to facilitate the separation of photogenerated carrier, reducing the recombination rate and improving photocatalytic efficiency. The piezoelectric effect caused by ultrasonic vibration is coupled with the photocatalysis, which realizes the high efficiency co-catalysis of BTO/ BOC piezoelectric photocatalyst. The polarized BTO/BOC heterojunction catalysts achieved a very high degradation efficiency (99.15 %) under piezo-photocatalysis. The degradation rates (k = 0.7494 min � 1) are 1.74 and 8.19 times higher than photocatalysis (k = 0.4304 min � 1) and piezoelectric catalysis (k = 0.0915 min � 1), respectively. The investigation of the piezoelectric effect and photocatalysis's synergistic relationship is very significant.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the catalytic effect of piezoelectric materials on photocatalysis and prepares a flower-like Bi4Ti3O12/BiOCl (BTO/BOC) composite catalyst. The efficiency of photogenerated carrier separation is evaluated through electrochemical, PL, and ESR tests. The built-in electric field of BOC helps facilitate the separation of photogenerated carriers, reducing recombination rates and improving photocatalytic efficiency. The combination of piezoelectric effect and photocatalysis achieves high-efficiency co-catalysis of BTO/BOC piezoelectric photocatalyst.