Ultrathin Ba0.75Sr0.25TiO3 nanosheets with highly exposed {001} polar facets for high-performance piezocatalytic application

Abstract

The development of piezoelectrics with high catalytic activity to address environmental pollution and energy shortage has long been pursued. In this work, for the first time, a “three-birds-with-one-stone” strategy is proposed to design high-activity piezocatalysts. Interestingly, we achieved ultrathin, highly exposed polar facets and ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transitions in Ba_1−xSr_xTiO₃ nanosheets simultaneously. As expected, Ba_0.75Sr_0.25TiO₃ shows superior piezocatalytic performance for organic pollutant degradation due to its excellent flexibility, highly exposed polar area, and short carrier migration distance. Then, the piezoelectric potential distribution and electron transport ability on the interface of Ba_0.75Sr_0.25TiO₃ were investigated through finite element method (FEM) simulation and density-functional theory (DFT) calculations, which provided a deep insight into the enhanced mechanism. This work thus presents a novel strategy for designing high-performance piezocatalysts and provides new insights for the optimization of the piezocatalytic activity by combining multiple advantages.