Abstract:
The built-in electric field induced by piezoelectric materials has been proven to be one of the most effective strategies for regulating charge transfer pathways and suppressing carrier recombination. PbTi
0.85Ni
0.15O
3/TiO
2 nanorod arrays compsite were fabricated via a two-step process comprising hydrothermal and sol-gel methods. By degrading organic dyes, composite materials exhibit excellent piezo-photocatalytic performance. After 30 minutes, the piezo-photocatalytic degradation rate of methylene blue (MB) by PbTi
0.85Ni
0.15O
3/TiO
2 reached 97.3%, with a degradation reaction rate of 0.1215 min
–1, which is 3.3 times of the photocatalytic degradation rate (0.0372 min
–1) and 5.7 times of the piezoelectric catalytic degradation rate (0.0211 min
–1). After doping Ni, the band gap decreases, the carrier concentration increases, the lattice distortion increases, and the piezo-photocatalytic performance enhances. The results of sacrificial agent addition experiments and electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR) experiments indicate that •O
2− and •OH are the main active spices in piezo-photocatalytic degradation. After doping Ni, the band gap decreases, the carrier concentration increases, and the lattice distortion increases, resulting in superior piezo-photocatalytic performance of PbTi
0.85Ni
0.15O
3/TiO
2 compared to PbTiO
3/TiO
2. In addition, the degradation of different dyes by PbTi
0.85Ni
0.15O
3/TiO
2 and the degradation rate after 5 cycles indicate that the composite material has good piezo-photocatalytic degradation property for various dyes and good stability. According to the energy band arrangement, it is proposed that the tilting and bending of the energy band caused by piezoelectric polarization can promote the separation of photogenerated carriers, so that dye degradation has excellent piezoelectric photocatalytic performance.