Macroscopic Polarization Enhancement Promoting Photo‐ and Piezoelectric‐Induced Charge Separation and Molecular Oxygen Activation

Abstract

Efficient photo- and piezoelectric-induced molecular oxygen activation are both achieved by macroscopic polarization enhancement on a noncentrosymmetric piezoelectric semiconductor BiOIO₃. The replacement of V⁵⁺ ions for I⁵⁺ in IO₃ polyhedra gives rise to strengthened macroscopic polarization of BiOIO₃, which facilitates the charge separation in the photocatalytic and piezoelectric catalytic process, and renders largely promoted photo- and piezoelectric induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) evolution, such as superoxide radicals (^.O₂⁻) and hydroxyl radicals (^.OH). This work advances piezoelectricity as a new route to efficient ROS generation, and also discloses macroscopic polarization engineering on improvement of multi-responsive catalysis.