Enhanced piezo-electro-chemical coupling of BaTiO3/g-C3N4 nanocomposite for vibration-catalysis

The piezo-electro-chemical effect, a phenomenon of vibration exciting chemical reaction, is hopeful for application in vibration-catalysis but rarely reported. In this work, BaTiO3/g-C3N4 composites are fabricated through a simple mixing-calcining method. The effect is evaluated through the decomposition of Rhodamine B dye under vibration, revealing that the composites exhibit the enhanced vibration-catalytic activity which is 82% compared to pure BaTiO3 which is 57%. The enhancement is attributed to the electric field in the heterojunction effectively separates the vibration-induced carriers and further accelerates carrier migration. Active species are further confirmed on basis of adding the corresponding quencher, in which holes and superoxide radicals are suggested to be the main active species responsible for the dye decomposition, while hydroxyl radicals play a relatively small role. With these advantages, high decomposition ratio, simple preparation method, this heterojunction nano-composite is potential for the decomposition of pollutants.