Boosting piezo-photocatalytic activity in CuBi2O4/NaNbO3 by coupling it with PVDF for organic pollutant degradation

This work reports a piezo-photocatalytic film, which is easily synthesised and retrievable from water with an environmentally friendly composition exhibiting higher reaction kinetics for degradation of dye using polyvinylidene-fluoride (PVDF), copper bismuth oxide (CuBi2O4) and sodium niobate (NaNbO3). XRD confirmed the structure of CuBi2O4 and NaNbO3, and FTIR was used to confirm β-PVDF, while HR-SEM was used to study morphology. The prepared film displays excellent stability in piezo-photocatalytic conditions. It degrades rhodamine B (RhB) with 98 % efficiency within 30 min in piezo-photocatalysis mode and 113 times faster than CuBi2O4/NaNbO3. This enhanced performance is due to the synergistic piezocatalytic effect of PVDF and NaNbO3. Further, to understand the catalytic nature of the ultrasonic-induced piezo-photocatalytic effect for dye degradation, scavenger studies were performed to identify the radicals generation. Reusability tests revealed no loss in efficiency for five consecutive runs. The strategy outlined here can be used to treat industrial effluents containing various complex dyes.