Fast and efficient piezo/photocatalytic removal of methyl orange using SbSI nanowires

Abstract

Piezocatalysis is a novel method that can be applied for degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater. In this paper, ferroelectric nanowires of antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI) have been fabricated using a sonochemical method. Methyl orange (MO) was chosen as a typical pollutant, as it is widely used as a dye in industry. An aqueous solution of MO at a concentration of 30 mg/L containing SbSI nanowires (6 g/L) was subjected to ultrasonic vibration. High degradation e ciency of 99.5% was achieved after an extremely short period of ultrasonic irradiation (40 s). The large reaction rate constant of 0.126(8) s􀀀1 was determined for piezocatalytic MO decomposition. This rate constant is two orders of magnitude larger than values of reaction rate constants reported in the literature for the most e cient piezocatalysts. These promising experimental results have proved a great potential of SbSI nanowires for their application in environmental purification and renewable energy conversion.