Strong piezocatalysis in barium titanate/carbon hybrid nanocomposites for dye wastewater decomposition

• Published in: Journal of colloid and interface science 2021-03, Vol.586, p.758-765
• Main Authors: Chen, Lin, Jia, Yanmin, Zhao, Jinhe, Ma, Jiangping, Wu, Zheng, Yuan, Guoliang, Cui, Xiangzhi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Barium titanate /carbon hybrid nanocomposites; Piezocatalysis; Piezoelectric effect; Water treatment
• ISSN: 0021-9797; 1095-7103
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.10.145

[Display omitted] •The piezoelectric-catalysis of organic dye decomposition is realized in the BaTiO3/C hybrid nanocomposites.•The BaTiO3/C hybrid nanocomposites exhibits the higher catalytic activity than that of pure BaTiO3.•The enhanced catalytic activity in BaTiO3/C hybrid nanocomposites can be ascribed to the improved charges separation.•The good recyclability makes BaTiO3/C potential in wastewater treatment through utilizing vibration energy. In this work, the strong piezocatalysis is found in the two-step hydrothermally-synthesized barium titanate/carbon hybrid nanocomposites and is used for rhodamine B dye decomposition. As the carbon content increases from 0 to 5 wt%, the catalytic performance of hybrid nanocomposites first increases and then slightly decreases. When the carbon content increases to 2 wt%, the barium titanate/carbon hybrid nanocomposites exhibit the optimal piezocatalytic performance, which have the ~75.5% dye decomposition ratio and the ~0.04901 min−1 reaction rate constant after the 40 min vibration stimulation, while that of the pure barium titanate are 48.4% and 0.01942 min−1, respectively. The improvement of piezocatalytic performance in barium titanate/carbon hybrid nanocomposites can be ascribed to the action of carbon's charge transfer which promotes the effective separation of the piezoelectrically-induced electric charges. After three runs recycle utilization tests, the barium titanate/carbon hybrid nanocomposites still exhibit ~70% decomposition ratio of rhodamine B dye. The strong piezocatalytic performance and the good reusability make the barium titanate/carbon hybrid nanocomposites potential in the field of wastewater treatment through utilizing natural vibration energy in future.