Strongly piezocatalytic dye decomposition of sol-gel synthesized PZT film

Piezocatalysis technology emerges as a promising solution for environmental protection and wastewater pollution treatment. This study focuses on the synthesis of Pb(Zr0.50Ti0.50)O3 (PZT) ferroelectric thin films as piezocatalysts through a sol-gel method. The piezocatalytic performance of these PZT films under vibration is also evaluated through utilizing Rhodamine B(RhB) dye as a model pollutant. When vibrations are applied to the RhB solution for 3 h, the RhB dye decomposition ratio reaches 90.22 %. The influence of pH values, vibration power and dye concentration condition on the decomposition ratio of RhB dye wastewater during the piezocatalytic process. Furtherly, these inhibitor experiments indicate that these middlle active species in piezocatalysis of PZT film are mainly the ·O2− and ·OH radicals. The study demonstrates the tremendous potential of PZT film's piezoelectric effect in treating dye wastewater through harvesting mechanical vibration energy.