Piezo-photocatalytic reduction of nitrates to N2 over silver dispersed on BaTiO3@TiO2

This communication first achieved piezo-photocatalytic reduction of nitrates to N₂ through designing an Ag₂O/BaTiO₃@TiO₂ core-shell catalyst. The built-in electric field induced by piezoelectric polarization suppresses photoexcited carrier recombination, and simultaneously causes energy band tilting, leading to the generation of electrons with higher reducibility to directly trigger the NO₃^- reduction to ˙NO₃^2-, even without hole scavengers.