Strong pyro-electro-chemical coupling of Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3@Ag pyroelectric nanoparticles for room-temperature pyrocatalysis

In this work, a strong pyro-electro-chemical coupling effect of the sol-gel-synthesized Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 (BST) pyroelectric nanoparticles was discovered and its application for room-temperature pyrocatalytic dye decomposition was also developed. Through harvesting 25-50 degrees C cold-hot alternation energy, BST nanoparticles can obviously decompose Rhodanmine B dye with a decomposition efficiency of 90%. The pyro-electro-chemical coupling is on basis of product of the pyroelectric effect and the electrochemical effect, which can be proved by the observed intermediate reaction products of superoxide radicals (center dot O-2(-)) and hydroxyl radicals (center dot OH). The enhanced pyrocatalytic activity of pyroelectric BST@Ag (1.5 wt%) nanoparticles is obtained with a decomposition efficiency of 99% for Rhodanmine B dye, which may be due to the coating silver on BST surface impeding the recombination of pyroelectrically-induced positive and negative electric charges. The strong pyroelectro-chemical performance makes the pyroelectric BST@Ag nanoparticles potential in wastewater decomposition through utilizing cold-hot fluctuation thermal energy.