Effectively enhanced photocatalytic performance of layered perovskite Bi₂NdO₄Cl by coupling piezotronic effect

The coupling between piezoelectricity and photoexcitation is an attractive method for improving the photocatalytic efficiency of semiconductors. Herein, a novel layered perovskite photocatalyst Bi₂NdO₄Cl (BNOC) has been successfully prepared via solid-state reaction. PFM results confirm that BNOC has piezoelectricity, and its piezo-photocatalytic degradation performance was evaluated for the first time using tetracycline hydrochloride (TH) as a pollutant model. The results show that the piezo-photocatalytic degradation rate constant is about 1.5 times higher than the sum of the individual photo- and piezo-catalytic components. This synergistic enhancement can be attributed to the band tilting-induced piezoelectric polarization charges and formation of a piezoelectric field, which accelerates the photoinduced charge carrier separation and effectively enhanced the photocatalytic performance. This work may facilitate the development of novel piezoelectric photocatalytic materials that are highly sensitive to the mechanical energy of discrete fluids, and offer ideas for piezo-photocatalysis in environmental applications.