Coupling Enhanced Piezo-Photocatalysis on Robust Intergrowth Ferroelectric SrBi<sub>8</sub>Ti<sub>7</sub>O<sub>27</sub> Nanosheets
Hongjian Yu, Yuanyuan Ji, Yan Zhang, Shuchen Tu, Siew Kheng Boong, Hiang Kwee Lee, Fan Guo, Chuanqiang Zhou, Jie Han
Abstract
Piezo-photocatalysis is an emerging approach that combines the piezoelectric effect with the optical properties of a semiconductor to promote the effective separation of charge carriers. However, current piezocatalytic materials often suffer from poor catalytic efficiency and limited practicality due to a weak built-in electric field induced by mechanical energy. Herein, we introduce unique intergrowth ferroelectric semiconductor SrBi 8 Ti 7 O 27 nanosheets as a green and high-performance piezo-photocatalyst for CO 2 reduction and pollutant degradation. Compared to single ferroelectrics Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 and SrBi 4 Ti 4 O 15, intergrowth ferroelectric SrBi 8 Ti 7 O 27, with the strongest spontaneous polarization electric field, achieves superior piezo-photocatalytic CO 2 -to-CO conversion (361.34 μmol g –1 h –1 ). Moreover, our design also degrades high-concentration organic pollutants (100 mg/L) with up to ∼100% efficiency within 60 min, notably outperforming most standalone and untreated piezo-photocatalysts reported to date. These findings provide valuable insights for the development of highly efficient and multifunctional piezo-photocatalysts for green sustainable energy, environmental, and chemical applications.