Zou Xuexue

Southeast University, China

Title: Natural day–night temperature variations driving pyrocatalytic wastewater treatment and CO2 reduction based on room-temperature rhombohedral–tetragonal phase transition of lead-free ferroelectric BZT-0.5BCT fibers

---

Biography

Zouxuexue, was born in China in 1992. From 2019 to now, she is studying as a PhD student at Southeast University. Her PhD research topic is: Research on the fabrication methods and applications of micro and nano fibres.

Abstract

Environmental remediation approaches in terms of wastewater treatment and CO2 reduction using environmental energy are highly desirable for an industrialized society. Herein, the pyrocatalytic performance of electrospun lead-free ferroelectric Ba(Ti0.8Zr0.2)O3-x(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 (BZT-xBCT,x = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6) micro-nano fibers is investigated, and BZT-0.5BCT is identified as an efficient pyrocatalyst for water pollutants decomposition driven by rhombohedral–tetragonal (R-T) phase transition. In response to 0–60 °C thermal cycles, the decomposition ratio of Rhodamine B (RhB) by BZT-0.5BCT fibers after nine thermal cycles is approximately 70%. Moreover, under outdoor day-night temperature fluctuations, about 76% of RhB and 95% of methylene blue (MB) can be degraded after 10 and 7 days, respectively. For Cr(VI) (potassium dichromate) and tetracycline (TE), the fibers show good pyrocatalytic degradation ability. High levels of antimicrobial activity can be achieved against Escherichia coli (99.99%) and Staphylococcus aureus (92.83%) after 20 and 80 thermal cycles between 24–37, respectively. Furthermore, the pyrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to acetaldehyde by BZT-0.5BCT can reach approximately 382.47 ?mol g-1 after 20 thermal cycles of 0–60 °C. Therefore, such outstanding catalytic performance of pyroelectric BZT-0.5BCT fibers enables pyroelectric catalysis as a potential approach for both all-round wastewater treatment and CO2 reduction.