Enhancement of piezoelectric catalysis of Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 with electric poling for dye decomposition

In this work, the performance of solid-phase sintered Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 ceramic powder catalyst is investigated for Rhodamine B (RhB) dye decomposition under different electric poling fields. As a result of the vibration excitation, the piezoelectric catalytic decomposition ratio of the poled Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 for RhB dye wastewater increases from 10.84% to 51.32% as the electric poling field increases from 0 to 0.5 kV/mm. The improved piezoelectric catalytic activity could be attributed to a rise in the piezoelectric performance of Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 after electric poling. The addition of the different types of radical scavengers in piezoelectric catalysis further proves that a large amount of superoxide-free radicals and a small number of hydroxyl radicals participate in the catalytic reaction. Our results demonstrate that electric poling, as a simple and effective method of improving piezoelectric catalysis, has potential applications in dye-containing wastewater treatment.