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

Efficient photo- and piezoelectric-induced molecular oxygen activation are both achieved by macroscopic polarization enhancement on a noncentrosymmetric piezoelectric semiconductor BiOIO . The replacement of V ions for I in IO polyhedra gives rise to strengthened macroscopic polarization of BiOIO , 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 ( O ) 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.