Free-standing, non-toxic and reusable 0.67BiFeO3–0.33BaTiO3 based polymeric piezo-catalyst for organic dye wastewater treatment

Piezoelectric materials are used to degrade organic pollutants in water under ultrasonic vibration. However, in particulate form, it limits recyclability and reuse. On the other hand, a polymer-based device suffers from low piezo-catalytic performance. This work reports a free-standing, non-toxic, retrievable and reusable polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)-[0.67BiFeO3–0.33BaTiO3] (BF33BT) composite mold for fast degradation of complex organic dyes. BF33BT nanoparticles and PVDF-BF33BT composite mold were synthesized using the sol-gel and solvent casting methods. The optimized composite mold degrades 5 mg.L−1 of methylene blue, rhodamine B, and crystal violet up to 98 %, 91 %, and 88 %, respectively, in 40 min. The superior performance is attributed to the combined piezoelectric property of PVDF and BF33BT, which enhances the production of reactive oxygen species. The mold can be used up to 10 times with negligible loss in efficiency, hence presenting a low-cost strategy for the degradation of complex dyes found in industrial effluents for remediation.