Environmentally-friendly treatment technologies employing materials with improved functionalities are needed for the effective and efficient remediation of contaminated waters. In this work we investigated the potential of a compositionally tunable tetragonal tungsten bronze (TTB) structure ferroelectric, namely Strontium Barium Niobate (SBN), as a catalyst that can be activated by multiple external stimuli such as UV light or thermal  cycling. To overcome limitations associated with the traditional solid state synthesis reaction, we employed a Solution Combustion Synthesis (SCS) method for synthesizing SBN particles of various compositions. The synthesized SBN particles have been examined with a variety of characterization techniques including Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). We carried out UV photodegradation experiments on model organic dyes using bare and silver decorated SBN particles, and compared their respective degradation rates with the well-established P25 TiO<sub>2 </sub>photocatalyst. Silver decorated SBN exhibits higher degradation rates than non-decorated SBN of the same composition. Preliminary pyroelectric-enabled organic dye degradation results, which are unique to ferroelectric-based catalysts, will be also presented. Future directions and extensions of this work will be discussed.<br/>

Photocatalytic degradation of model organic dyes by strontium barium niobate particles synthesized by solution combustion synthesis

2019 Fall National Meeting

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