Competing contributions to the catalytic activity of barium titanate nanoparticles in the decomposition of organic pollutants. Issue 6 (December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kalhori, Hossein; Youssef, Azza Hadj; Ruediger, Andreas; Pignolet, Alain
• Is Part Of: Journal of environmental chemical engineering. Volume 10:Issue 6(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-12
• Subjects: Nanoparticles -- Piezocatalysis -- Waste water treatment -- Raman spectroscopy -- Dye degradation; Chemical engineering -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Environmental engineering -- Periodicals; Chemical engineering -- Environmental aspects; Environmental engineering; Periodicals; 660.0286
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jece.2022.108571
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2213-2929

Abstract

Abstract: There is an increasing demand for innovative solutions to protect the environment from different kinds of industrial pollutants and to complement the existing physical, chemical and biological wastewater treatment techniques. Recently, the use of piezoelectric nanomaterials as catalysts for water purification has been suggested. We show that the observed catalytic activity may not be entirely attributed to the piezoelectric effect of nanomaterials. While piezoelectric-based catalysis has already been studied using several piezoelectric materials, its discrimination against the omnipresent tribocatalysis or sonocatalysis remains in its infancy thus questioning the relevance of the additional piezoelectric contribution. In this study, we investigate the catalytic activities of both piezoelectric barium titanate (BaTiO3 ) and non-piezoelectric titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) to distinguish between sono- tribo- and piezocatalytic contributions. Comparing the catalytic performance of BaTiO3 and TiO2 for different concentrations and temperatures gives an approach to better understand the contribution of different physical effects to the catalytic activity of BaTiO3 . It is shown that for otherwise identical properties such as size, crystallinity and similar properties of surface terminations, the comparison of TiO2 and BaTiO3 yields a contribution of around 90 % to the piezoelectric effect in the BaTiO3 catalytic response. Graphical Abstract: ga1 Highlights: The catalytic activity of BaTiO3 is not exclusively due to its piezoelectricity rather than an omnipresent sonocatalytic portion. We build up a model in which the catalytic activities of piezoelectric BaTiO3 and non-piezoelectric TiO2 nanopowders to study the degradation of methyl orange as an organic dye dissolved in water compared together, and the contributions of both sono and piezoelectric effect is measured in BaTiO3 . All piezocatalytic measurements need to be corrected for tribo and/or sonochemical contributions.