Piezo-photocatalytic reduction of nitrates to N over silver dispersed on BaTiO@TiO

This communication first achieved piezo-photocatalytic reduction of nitrates to N 2 through designing an Ag 2 O/BaTiO 3 @TiO 2 core-shell catalyst. The built-in electric field induced by piezoelectric polarization suppresses photoexcited carrier recombination, and simultaneously causes energy band tilting, leading to the generation of electrons with higher reducibility to directly trigger the NO 3 − reduction to &z.rad;NO 3 2− , even without hole scavengers. Piezo-photocatalytic nitrate reduction to N 2 was realized for the first time. The piezoelectric-induced built-in electric field causes energy band tilting, leading to generating electrons with high reducibility to directly reduce NO 3 − to &z.rad;NO 3 2− .