Combination of piezoelectric additives and ball milling for high-efficiency degradation of organic dye in solid state

Abstract The combination of piezoelectric material and ball milling leads to new frontiers in catalysis research. Here we used piezoelectric BaTiO3 nanoparticles as the additive for the degradation of dye pollutant in solid state in ball milling process. With the assistant of ppm level CuBr2 and H2O2, high degradation conversion (>99%) of dyes can be achieved in short time (10 min). BaTiO3 nanoparticles became temporarily highly polarized particles during BM process and generated electron-hole. These particles exhibited strong reducing properties and reduced Cu(II) into the active Cu(I) species which can catalyze H2O2 to generate highly active ·O2– to enhance the dye degradation. In addition to the general applicability for different dyes and larger scales, this BaTiO3 assist BM process was deduced to be a promising powerful platform for organic pollutant treatment in solid states.