Effect of poling on piezocatalytic and electrochemical properties of Pb(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 ceramics

Piezocatalysis has garnered considerable attention as a novel catalytic effect due to its potential to breakdown organic contaminants in the presence of mechanical vibration. However, piezocatalysis efficiency optimization remains a struggle. Polarized Pb(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 (PZT), with its non-centrosymmetry structure and high ferroelectric polarisation, offers enormous promise as a piezocatalyst amongst other piezoelectric materials. We evaluated the piezocatalytic effectiveness of the as-prepared samples by analysing the breakdown of rhodamine B (RB), methylene blue (MB) and their equimolar composition aquous solutions in the dark using ultrasonic vibration. The results revealed that poled PZT exhibits significantly improved piezocatalytic activity for MB and RB decomposition. The degradation of MB and RB, as well as the probable by-products and active radical species created in the piezocatalytic system, were studied in detail. Additionally, the effect of residual polarisation on the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) for alkaline fuel cells was also studied. An explanation for the enhanced effect of polarization on the piezocatalytic performance of PZT was given based on the experimental data.