Enabling PIEZOpotential in PIEZOelectric Semiconductors for Enhanced Catalytic Activities

Piezotronic-enhanced oxygen evolution reaction enabled by a Au/MoS2 nanosheet catalyst

Herein, the energy band of the Au nanoparticles/MoS₂ nanosheets is modulated by ultrasonic vibration to induce piezoelectric catalytic effect, which effectively enhances the OER performance and dye decomposition reaction.

Advancing Versatile Ferroelectric Materials Toward Biomedical Applications

Ferroelectric materials (FEMs), possessing piezoelectric, pyroelectric, inverse piezoelectric, nonlinear optic, ferroelectric-photovoltaic, and many other properties, are attracting increasing attention in the field of biomedicine in recent years. Because of their versatile ability of interacting with force, heat, electricity, and light to generate electrical, mechanical, and optical signals, FEMs are demonstrating their unique advantages for biosensing, acoustics tweezer, bioimaging, therapeutics, tissue engineering, as well as stimulating biological functions. This review summarizes the current-available FEMs and their state-of-the-art fabrication techniques, as well as provides an overview of FEMs-based applications in the field of biomedicine. Challenges and prospects for future development of FEMs for biomedical applications are also outlined.

Mixed Titanium Oxide Strategy for Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Titanium dioxide is a promising photocatalyst material for water splitting, but is limited by its low utilization of solar energy and rapid recombination of electron-hole pairs. Herein, a mixed titanium oxide strategy, utilizing TiO₂/Ti₂O₃ heterostructures consisting of in situ grown TiO₂ nanotubes with mixed anatase and rutile phases on bulk Ti₂O₃ materials, is demonstrated for efficient and recyclable hydrogen evolution from photocatalytic water splitting. Taking advantage of the formed heterostructures and the created porous structures, the photogenerated electrons from the conduction band of anatase TiO₂ can be first delivered to rutile TiO₂ and then transferred to Ti₂O₃. Meanwhile, the presence of Ti₂O₃ in TiO₂/Ti₂O₃ heterostructures can substantially promote the charge mobility and suppress the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Hence, with a tuned band gap structure that enables rapid electron-hole separation, increased charge carrier density, and enhanced light absorption, the TiO₂/Ti₂O₃ heterostructures provide an enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate as high as 1440 μmol g^-1 h^-1 under full-sunlight irradiation and without any other cocatalyst. This mixed titanium oxide strategy may open up new avenues for designing and constructing highly efficient TiO₂-based photocatalytic materials for various applications.

Nanostructured materials for photocatalysis

Photocatalysis is a green technology which converts abundantly available photonic energy into useful chemical energy.