Interfacial Schottky junction induced enhanced piezocatalytic activity

The deposition of metal onto a semiconductor leads to the creation of a Schottky junction, offering an effective route for inducing polarization. The present study utilizes this phenomenon as a strategic approach for increasing the piezocatalytic activity for pollutant removal applications. Gold (Au) and silver (Ag) were introduced on the surface of the plain BaTiO₃ (BT) ceramic pellet to demonstrate the effectiveness of the mentioned phenomenon. The fabricated catalysts, BT, Ag-BT, and Au-BT, were evaluated for the piezocatalytic activity for degrading the representative pollutant, methylene blue (MB). Piezocatalysis under mechanical vibrations showed that Au-BT achieved the highest MB dye degradation (89%), followed by Ag-BT (75%) and BT (47%), with Au-BT and Ag-BT exhibiting ~ 1.9- and ~ 1.6-fold improvements over plain BT within 3 h. The increment in degradation piezocatalytic activity is attributed to the enhanced built-in polarization due to metal-semiconductor interface development. Overall, the present study highlights a simple modification strategy for interfacial polarization, providing an effective alternative to chemical approaches for enhancing the piezocatalytic activity of the catalyst.