Calcium Single Atom Confined in Nitrogen-Doped Carbon-Coupled Polyvinylidene Fluoride Membrane for High-Performance Piezocatalysis
Qi Zhao, Yuewen Yang, Guanghui Xiong, Jianwei Chen, Tao Xu, Qunjie Xu, Ruiqin Zhang, Weifeng Yao, Hexing Li, Chun‐Sing Lee
Abstract
A piezoelectric polymer membrane based on single metal atoms was demonstrated to be effective by anchoring isolated calcium (Ca) atoms on a composite of nitrogen-doped carbon and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF). The addition of Ca-atom-anchored carbon nanoparticles not only promotes the formation of the β phase (from 29.8 to 56.3%), the most piezoelectrically active phase, in PVDF, but also introduces much higher porosity and hydrophilicity. Under ultrasonic excitation, the fabricated catalyst membrane demonstrates a record-high and stable dye decomposing rate of 0.11 min –1 and antibacterial efficiencies of 99.8%. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the primary contribution to catalytic activity arises from single-atom Ca doping and that a possible synergistic effect between PVDF and Ca atoms can improve the catalytic performance. It is shown that O 2 molecules can be easily hydrogenated to produce ·OH on Ca-PVDF, and the local electric field provided by the β-phase-PVDF might enhance the production of ·O 2 – . The proposed polymer membrane is expected to inspire the rational design of piezocatalysts and pave the way for the application of piezocatalysis technology for practical environmental remediation.