Solvothermal Synthesis and Characterization of Nanostructured BaZnO2 and Investigation of Its Piezo-related and Photoelectrochemical Performance

Abstract

BaZnO2 is classified as a noncentrosymmetric material with a space group P3121 It belongs to the ?- quartz family which is one of the most used piezoelectric material According to literature first principle studies predicted that BaZnO2 can be a promising candidate as a piezoelectric material thus motivating this research In this study BaZnO2 was fabricated using a two-step solvothermal synthesis XRD SEM and TEM were used to characterize BaZnO2 The results revealed the BaZnO2 phase along with some impurities such as BaCl2 and BaCl2˙H2O The existence of BaZnO2 was confirmed by investigating its piezo-related properties I-V measurements were performed and the results showed the piezotronic property of BaZnO2 The Schottky barrier height variation was also calculated using the thermionic emission-diffusion theory The photocatalytic and piezophotocatalytic properties of BaZnO2 were also studied by decomposing methylene blue (MB) solution under visible light illumination In the piezophotocatalytic experiment both stress and ultrasonic vibration were introduced into the system The results showed that the degradation capability of BaZnO2 was enhanced thus confirming its piezophotocatalytic property The photocurrent of BaZnO2 which is approximately 0 7μA/cm2 was measured using a three-electrode configuration of a photoelectrochemical cell

Date of Award	2016 Aug 26
Original language	English
Supervisor	Kao-Shuo Chang (Supervisor)