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  • Ferroelectric polarization ...
    Tu, Shuchen; Zhang, Yihe; Reshak, Ali H.; Auluck, Sushil; Ye, Liqun; Han, Xiaopeng; Ma, Tianyi; Huang, Hongwei

    Nano energy, February 2019, 2019-02-00, Letnik: 56
    Journal Article

    Fast recombination of photogenerated charge carriers in bulk remains the major obstacle for photocatalysis nowadays. Developing ferroelectrics directly as photoactive semiconducting catalysts may be promising in view of the strong ferroelectric polarization that induces the anisotropic charge separation. Here, we report a ferroelectric layered perovskite SrBi4Ti4O15 as a robust photocatalyst for efficient CO2 reduction. In the absence of co-catalysts and sacrificial agents, the annealed SrBi4Ti4O15 nanosheets with the strongest ferroelectricity cast a prominent photocatalytic CO2 reduction activity for CH4 evolution with a rate of 19.8 μmol h−1 g−1 in the gas-solid reaction system, achieving an apparent quantum yield (AQY) of 1.33% at 365 nm, outperforming most of the reported photocatalysts. The ferroelectric hysteresis loop, piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and ns-level time-resolved fluorescence spectra uncover that the outstanding CO2 photoreduction activity of SrBi4Ti4O15 mainly stems from the strong ferroelectric spontaneous polarization along 100 direction, which allows efficient bulk charge separation along opposite direction. DFT calculations also disclose that both electrons and holes show the smallest effective masses along a axis, verifying the high mobility of charge carriers facilitated by ferroelectric polarization. This study suggests that the traditionally semiconducting ferroelectric materials that have long been studied as ferro/piezoelectric ceramics now may be powerfully applied in the photocatalytic field to deal with the growing energy crisis. A ferroelectric layered perovskite semiconductor SrBi4Ti4O15 was developed as an efficient photocatalyst for CO2 reduction. The outstanding photocatalytic activity of SrBi4Ti4O15 is stemmed from the strong ferroelectric spontaneous polarization and excellent electronic structure, favoring efficient bulk charge separation. Display omitted •Nanostructured SrBi4Ti4O15 ferroelectric with large ferroelectricity was synthesized.•It shows outstanding photocatalytic CO2 reduction performance in gas phase.•The CH4 generation rate reaches 19.8 umol h−1 g−1 with a AQE of 1.33% at 365 nm.•Relationship between ferroelectricity and photocatalysis activity was clarified.