Chemistry of Inorganic Materials (Dec 2023)
Corona-poling enhanced photocatalytic degradation of methyl-violet and rhodamine B pollutants using ferroelectric nanoparticles
Abstract
In this study, the effect of DC corona poling on the photocatalytic degradation response of conventional ferroelectric BaTiO3 nanoparticles over the methyl-violet and rhodamine B dyes has been investigated systematically. The BaTiO3 (BT) nanoparticles were synthesized via modified sol-gel route. The synthesized BT nanoparticles were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), P-E hysteresis loop, impedance analyzer, photoluminescence spectroscopy and UV–vis spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the tetragonal phase of BT nanoparticles. The average particle size was found to be 130 nm as confirmed by SEM. The P-E hysteresis loop confirmed the ferroelectric nature of the sample and the Tc was observed nearly 130 °C as confirmed by dielectric study. The optical bandgap was found to be 3.74 eV and 3.49 eV for unpoled and poled samples, respectively. The degradation efficiency of the corona poled and unpoled BaTiO3 samples for the rhodamine dye solution was 45% and 25%, respectively, whereas it was 93% and 83% for methyl violet dye solution in 120 min under UV–vis light. The corona poling enhanced the alignment of electric dipoles in BaTiO3, which causes higher spatial charge separation, lowering the electron-hole recombination and hence improved the degradation efficiency.