Synergetic photocatalysis and piezocatalysis of Bi4Ti2Nb0.5Fe0.5O12 for degradation of organic pollutants

Bi4Ti2Nb0.5Fe0.5O12 (BTNF) was synthesised using a solid-state reaction route. The chemical composition, morphology, and crystal structure were evaluated via X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. The multicatalytic performance was investigated in various advanced oxidation processes like photocatalysis, piezocatalysis, and combined photo-piezocatalysis. Methylene blue (MB) dye was employed as a model pollutant to evaluate the degradation performance. BTNF showed an excellent photo-piezocatalytic degradation performance of ~ 87% within 3 h. Further, the degradation of Rhodamine B(RhB) and Methyl Violet (MV) dye was also evaluated in the photo-piezocatalysis process. The highest degradation rate of 0.0154 min−1 was obtained for MV dye, followed by 0.0131 min−1 for RhB dye and 0.0107 min−1 for MB dye.