Effect of Poling and Porosity on BaTiO3 for Piezocatalytic Dye Degradation

Abstract

Abstract The presence of both organic and inorganic pollutants in water can represent a threat to our ecosystems and pose a challenge to long-term sustainability. As a result, there is a need to investigate novel methods for addressing environmental remediation. Among a variety of techniques available, piezoelectric catalysis has attracted attention due to its abililty to harness the piezoelectric effect for efficient degradation of pollutants. Herein, porous ceramic barium titnate (BaTiO3) pellets for piezocatalytic dye degradation were synthesized using polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) as a pore former in 0-30 wt.% proportion through solid state reaction method. The synthesized porous BaTiO3 pellets were characterized in detail by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy. An increase in the degradation of a Methylene Blue (MB) dye with an increase in porosity within the BaTiO3 materials, where a maximum degradation was observed for 30 wt.% PMMA pellet which has a degradation rate that was ~1.75 greater than the dense (0 wt.% PMMA) BaTiO3 ceramic pellet. Furthermore, the synthesized porous BaTiO3 ceramic pellets were pulse poled, where the piezoelectric coefficient (d33) decreased with an increase in porosity. The poled 30 wt.% PMMA porous BaTiO3 pellet showed approximately ~57% MB dye degradation in 180 minutes, which was comparable with 30 wt.% PMMA unpoled BaTiO3 and dense 0 wt.% PMMA poled BaTiO3 ceramic pellet. The study provides insights on the influence of poling of a low density porous ceramic pellets, which are utilised as the piezocatalyst for water remediation.