High efficiency bi-harvesting light/vibration energy using piezoelectric zinc oxide nanorods for dye decomposition

Jiangping Ma, Jing Ren, Yanmin Jia, Zheng Wu, Lin Chen, Neale O. Haugen, Haitao Huang, Yongsheng Liu

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

258 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this work, the bi-harvesting of light and vibration energy is realized in hydrothermally-synthesized ZnO nanorods which is designed to achieve photo-/piezo-bi-catalysis for dye decomposition. In the presence of both UV irradiation and vibration, the decomposition ratio of ZnO nanorods for acid orange 7 is ∼80.8% within 100 min, which is higher than the value of ∼56.7% for photo-catalysis or the value of ∼31.8% for piezocatalysis. The enhanced photo-/piezo-bi-catalysis of ZnO nanorods in dye decomposition can be attributed to that the piezoelectric potential which formed in piezocatalysis process can help separate the photogenerated electron-hole pairs, therefore achieving a synergy effect between photocatalysis and piezocatalysis. The excellent photo-/piezo-bi-catalysis of ZnO can potentially find application in enhancing catalytic efficiency of dye decomposition through harvesting the light and vibration energy present in natural environments.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)376-383
Number of pages8
JournalNano Energy
Volume62
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2019

Keywords

  • Energy harvesting
  • Photocatalysis
  • Piezocatalysis
  • Piezoelectric effect
  • ZnO nanorod

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • General Materials Science
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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