Acceleration of Singlet Oxygen Evolution by Sonopiezoelectric Charge Transfer Over SrTiO₃-TiO₂ Heterojunction for Selective Oxidation

Abstract

Sonopiezo-mediated heterogeneous catalysis is a promising technology for efficient removal of organic pollutants from wastewater. Nevertheless, it is challenging in real water matrix with coexisting ions due to the rather-limited selectivity of reactive oxygen species if any. Herein, a sonopiezo-triggered singlet oxygen evolution system for selective removal of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) was rationally designed by SrTiO₃-TiO₂ heterojunction with a TiO₂-terminated SrTiO₃ S-scheme interfacial structure. SrTiO₃-TiO₂ heterojunction exhibits a dramatically expanded piezoelectric constant (d₃₃), which produces a synergistic effect on improving the separation and transfer efficiency of charge carrier for efficient TCH degradation. Moreover, SrTiO₃-TiO₂ heterojunction presents a high sonopiezo-current, which attractively indicates that SrTiO₃-TiO₂ heterojunction has a potential capacity of charge separation under sonopiezo initiation. Remarkably, the mechanism was identified as the continuous generating of singlet oxygen (¹O₂), in which the sonopiezo-generated electrons trigger the formation of superoxide anion radical (•O₂⁻) and its subsequent transformation to generate ¹O₂ by expending more sonopiezo-generated holes. These findings provided new insights towards developing nonradical system for effective and selective oxidation of electron-rich pollutants via sonopiezo-catalytic process.

Keywords

selective oxidation / singlet oxygen / sonopiezo-catalysis / SrTiO₃-TiO₂ / S-scheme heterojunction

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