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β-CuGaO2: a ferroelectric semiconductor with narrow band gap as degradation catalyst for wastewater environmental remediation

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Abstract

As a narrow band gap semiconductor, wurtzite β-CuGaO2 has drawn increasing attention in the area of solar energy. Although β-CuGaO2 has been theoretically predicted to possess ferroelectric polarization, its experimental ferroelectric characterization and practical applications have not yet been presented. Herein, firstly we experimentally confirmed its ferroelectric property via hysteresis loop measurement. The result showed a remanent polarization value of 10.20 μC·cm−2 with low coercive electric field of 6.45 kV·cm−1 at 20 Hz at room temperature, while the leakage current density (J) value was found to be 1.188 A·cm−2, which suggested the property of a larger remnant polarization with low coercive electric field than current value if the compactness was strengthened. Then, the synergistic effect of ferroelectric and semiconductor was comparatively highlighted by the experiment of pollutant degradation. Within 30 min, methyl orange degradation efficiency had reached 30.73% only in the case of spontaneous polarization (electricity), while it could reach 67.58% under the effect of pre-polarized β-CuGaO2 powder due to the modulating orientation of ferroelectric domains. Once irradiated (light), it was up to 92% within 30 min; in comparison, it merely took 16 min up to 92% degradation efficiency under both illumination and pre-polarization. If without illumination, it was 92.01% with 30 min in the condition of ordinary ultrasonic vibration (force) while under both illumination and ultrasonic vibration, only 11 min was spent to reach 92.79% degradation efficiency. All these results felicitously indicated that β-CuGaO2 had fascinating potential in energy harvesting (such as electricity, light, force) and transformation as wastewater environment remediation catalyst.

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摘要

作为一种窄带隙半导体, 纤锌矿 β-CuGaO2已经在太阳能利用方面获得持续性关注. 尽管在理论上 β-CuGaO2被预测拥有铁电特性, 但是在实验上相关的表征与应用还没有被提出. 因此, 我们用P-E电滞回线的方法, 首次在实验上证实 β-CuGaO2的铁电性. 结果显示, 在室温20 Hz的测试频率下, β-CuGaO2的剩余极化值是10.20 μC·cm-2, 而对应的矫顽场仅为6.45 kV·cm-1. 但此时的漏电流 (J) 是1.188 A·cm-2, 这表明如果材料的致密度更高, β-CuGaO2可以获得比现在更大的剩余极化. 然后, 铁电体和半导体的协同效应通过有机物的降解实验进行比较研究。在30 min时, 仅在自发极化的条件下, 甲基橙 (MO) 的降解效率已经达到了30.73%。而当预先调节铁电畴取向 (预先极化 β-CuGaO2粉末) 时, 在30 min时, 降解效率已经达到了67.58%. 一旦光照, 降解效率在30 min内可达92%. 相比之下, 在光照和预极化条件下, 要达到92%的降解效率仅需16 min. 如果没有光照, 仅在超声的条件下, 降解效率在30 min内可以达到92.01%, 而同时在超声和光照作用下, 11 min即可达到92.79%的降解效率. 这些结果都很好地表明, β-CuGaO2在能量收集和转换方面有很好的应用前景, 比如作为污水环境修复的催化剂.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Natural Foundation of Jilin Province (No. 190201106JC) and the Project for Science & Technology Development of Jilin Province (Nos. 20200602021ZP and 20200801048GH).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China

    Ming-Cai Yao, Xiao-Jie Wu, Lan-Lan Xu, Qiang Yang, Jian Meng & Xiao-Juan Liu

  2. College of Applied Chemistry and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Ming-Cai Yao & Xiao-Juan Liu

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Changchun, 130022, China

    Fan-Zhi Meng

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  1. Ming-Cai Yao
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Yao, MC., Wu, XJ., Xu, LL. et al. β-CuGaO2: a ferroelectric semiconductor with narrow band gap as degradation catalyst for wastewater environmental remediation. Rare Met. 41, 972–981 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-021-01832-y

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