Highly-efficient piezocatalytic performance of nanocrystalline BaTi0.89Sn0.11O3 catalyst with Tc near room temperature

Abstract Inducing changes in polarization of a ferroelectric material by applied stress is recently regarded as a fascinating approach to achieve piezocatalysis in case of both dye degradation and H2 generation. The polarization-driven ferroelectrics are expected to reveal superior performance near Curie temperature (Tc) due to the maximum polarization change, but lack experimental proof. In this work, BaTi0.89Sn0.11O3 (BTS) with high piezoelectric coefficient and low Tc is taken as an example for materials of this kind. BTS nanoparticles with multiple phase coexistence and low Tc ~ 40 °C were prepared and used for dyes degradation and hydrogen generation. In-situ piezoresponse scanning force microscopy revealed a much-enhanced piezoelectric response near Tc, resulting in a highly-active piezocatalyst. The Rhodamine B (RhB) and Methyl orange (MO) could be decomposed within 15 min and 60 min, respectively. Superior H2 generation rates of 141.1 and 360.2  μ mol g−1 h−1 were observed for BTS and BTS@Ag nanoparticles under ultrasonic irradiation at 15 °C. Furthermore, a highly-efficient pyrocatalytic performance with BTS nanoparticles was also found under cold–hot cycle excitation near Tc. This work demonstrates an efficient and low-cost strategy for water remediation via employing low Tc ferroelectrics by harvesting vibration or thermal energy from the surroundings.